May I Share a Yummy Quinoa Recipe?

Okay, now that I got all of that off my chest in my earlier post, I wanted to share with you a yummy recipe that I made last night for dinner.

As you may know, I am on a gluten-free diet. Since going completely gluten-free about a year ago, I've been trying to be intentional in learning how to incorporate other grains into my diet. Going gluten-free can initially be a big shock. There are many foods that are no longer permitted. So in order to avoid a completely boring diet, I've been doing some experimenting instead.

I used to love couscous. In fact, I shared my friend Carmen's amazing couscous salad recipe here a while back.

But, alas, couscous is on the no-no list for me now.

Over the summer, I had learned about a new grain called quinoa. It looked similar to couscous in my mind so I thought that maybe I could substitute it in some of my couscous recipes. Which has worked fine.

But last night I wanted to try something completely new. I made grilled chicken breasts (grilled on my grill pan, of course, since it was snowing last night), roasted kale (which is, oh, so yummy) and a side of quinoa salad which currently is nameless.


I found a recipe on this awesome blog that is devoted to quinoa recipes, but I had to tweak it a bit to fit what I had on hand.

Here it goes...

Ingredients Needed:

1 cup dry quinoa
1 can diced tomatoes with the jalapenos in it
Approx. 2 tbsp. olive oil
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
5 garlic cloves
1 tsp cumin
salt as desired
feta cheese (optional)

Now bear with me hear as I put the process into words...

I cooked the 1 cup quinoa in my microwave rice cooker with 2 cups of water for 10 minutes. Once it is done, let it sit undisturbed for another 10 minutes to absorb all of the liquid.

In the meantime, pour the olive oil in a pan, and saute the garlic (I had pressed mine through my garlic press) just until golden. (Beware, garlic browns {and burns} quickly.)

Once the garlic is browned, add the can of tomatoes, juice and all. Bring it to a simmer and let it simmer for approximately 5 minutes. Then add the can of drained and rinsed black beans, cumin, and salt.

Once this is all heated, add the cooked quinoa. Mix well and let cook for 10 minutes or so to distribute the flavor.

Once I dished the quinoa salad onto our plates, I topped it with a little bit of feta cheese, which I personally think really made it even more yummy. But I'm lactose intolerant too so I would only do this if I wasn't planning on going anywhere, because the yumminess wouldn't be worth the stomach cramps while I was out and about. (TMI??!! Sorry!) And I actually had the salad today for lunch without the feta, and it was still really yummy.


Anyway, a healthy, gluten-free alternative grain salad. Everyone loved it, well except Ian, my pickiest child, but even he ate, albeit it very slowly.

p.s. - Thanks for the kind comments on my last post. I hope I didn't come across as feeling sorry and pity for myself. It's not that at all. I felt convicted and felt I needed to make a public repentence. :)