Good Morning, Quinoa!

So I decided to experiment with some healthier food options that don’t involve pasta. After doing some reading, I realized my perfect culprit would be Peruvian-grown Quinoa. It is a good source of protein, amino acids, lysine, fiber, magnesium, iron, and lots of other fancy words that mean “healthy”.

Trying to vary my menu a bit more each day, I decide I would combine Quinoa with roasted eggplant and zucchini, chickpeas, lemon, garlic, and cherry tomatoes.

Who doesn't love bright and shiny tomatoes?

So I started by chopping up an eggplant and a zucchini, coating them both in olive oil, and sprinkling them with salt and pepper, and then placing them on a baking sheet covered in tinfoil. I put them in the oven somewhere around 300 degrees farenheit and let them roast for about 25 minutes. No clue if this was the “right” amount or not, but I was happy with how they came out!

Roasted Veggies!

Then I boiled about 2 cups water and mixed in 1 cup of the grain, reduced the heat and let it sit covered for about 15 minutes before taking it off the heat entirely. (Please read cooking directions before attempting to mimick my methodology, which is often flawed!)

Quinoa after cooking

In a separate bowl, I combined 1 can of chickpeas with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, (pretty sure I used half a lemon) and raw, finely chopped garlic. I let these items sit for about 30 minutes to combine flavors before combining with the cherry tomatoes over the cooked Quinoa.

Chickpeas and Cherry Tomatoes

I then chopped up the roasted zucchini and aubergine, (that’s eggplant for you Americans!) and combined the whole mess together in one giant bowl and tossed to mix all the flavors. What I ended up with was an amazingly delicious meal (with leftovers for a week) that I will happily recreate in different variations for years to come.