Quinoa is the queen of grains.

It deserves to be all the rage, still.
You’ve probably heard the term “complete protein” and maybe you’ve been too shy to ask what it means. We’ll tell you. It means it’s a protein source that has all nine essential amino acids. That’s something. There are 8 grams of protein per cup of quinoa (pronounced Keen-wah)!

Quinoa is also super high in manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, folate, fiber, iron, zinc and potassium. And it’s gluten-free. Honestly, we could go on and on about this super seed that you can now find in a creamy-white color, red-brown and brown-black in pretty much every supermarket.

You can eat it cold or hot, plain or spiced up, savory or sweet. We could go on and on but we’ll spare you the love and cut straight to today’s recipe.

The Queen of Quickie Quinoa Cuisine

Prep Time: 15 minutes (you can cut the veggies while the quinoa cooks!)
Serves: 2 (or 1 if you wanna leave the leftovers for your next day’s lunch)

Ingredients (the fresher, the better…always!):

1 cup raw quinoa
2 cups mixed veggies (anything will do—chopped up celery, red onion, grated carrot, sliced sweet peppers, tomatoes, finely chopped swiss chard, diced cucumber, snap peas, peas, green beans or avocado…whatever you have in the fridge that doesn’t need to be cooked will work great!)
½ cup goat cheese or feta or mozzarella (optional)
½ cup fresh herb: parsley or cilantro or basil
½ cup pumpkin seeds and/or sunflower seeds and/or flax seeds
2 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil
Juice of 1 lemon or 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste
1 red chili pepper (optional)

This is how you do it!:

  • Rinse quinoa
  • Add 2 cups water to a pot and add 1 cup quinoa
  • Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes covered (quinoa is done once all water has been
    absorbed and the seed has popped open and has a translucent line. It should look fluffy and puff up like its really happy)
  • Throw in the veggies you just chopped
  • Sprinkle the cheese, chopped herb/s and seeds on top
  • Mix in the olive oil and lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
  • Sprinkle the chili and salt and pepper to taste

So, how was it? Isn’t this the easiest, healthiest, tastiest lunch ever?

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