02 March 2011

Quinoa!

I am so excited! I finally figured out what to do with quinoa!

I saw a recipe in an Everyday Food cookbook for a warm spinach salad with roasted shiitake mushrooms, quinoa and goat cheese. Not having any shiitakes nor goat cheese on hand, I did regular mushrooms this way, which I had already figured out is really tasty on a bed of spinach.

But, I took a cue from this new recipe and put some just-cooked quinoa (I had had a package of it in my cupboard for the longest time because it isn't that good - just ask Mom) on top of the spinach along with the mushrooms and IT WAS GOOD! It made the spinach even more wilty and delicious.

Oh yeah, and I shaved some parmesan on top, so we wouldn't miss the goat cheese. It worked.

So - go forth and do likewise. Unless your name is Mom and you hate mushrooms. Guess what Mom - I have good news! I used the extra quinoa on another spinach salad today sans mushrooms. I just heated it up, layered it over the spinach and then put some grapefruit segments and avocado slices, and topped it with Seeds in your Teeth dressing. Turns out that quinoa benefits greatly from any kind of salad dressing.

I am so happy! I wanted to love quinoa but I just couldn't... and now I do. Yippee!!