Happy Wednesday!
It is pouring rain outside here today and I am thankful for it – California can always use an abundance of rain. I am working and drinking cup after cup of hot tea to keep the chill away.
I have definitely been in a rut with dinner for the last few weeks! So I got back to some of my favorite blogs for some ideas and walked away pretty inspired! Some of my faves are: Naturally Ella, Smitten Kitchen, My Name is Yeh, A Cozy Kitchen, Cookie and Kate and Pinch Of Yum.
From this exploration I was inspired to make some yummy things: kale salad with fried greek cheese, a couple new soups, and some old fashioned Indian veggies (bengan bhartha!). This quinoa came out of that experimentation – it was delicious. There are a lot of possible variations and I encourage you to use whatever veggies you have on hand. I ran out of tahini otherwise I would have throw that in as a dressing. It was good the way I have it – lots of different textures and very comforting. You could also throw a fried egg on top.
Winter Quinoa Bowl
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and soaked for at least 10 minutes
1 head cauliflower
1/2 red onion
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1 can garbanzo beans
salt/pepper
olive oil
dried oregano
garlic (2 cloves, optional)
lemon (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat over to 375 degrees F.
- Drain quinoa and cook. Put in a small pot, add 1 and 1/3 cups of water and salt to taste. Cover then bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, decrease the heat to minimum until the water is gone. Fluff with a fork and set aside.
- Cut cauliflower into small florets, onions into small pieces, and toss with salt, pepper and olive oil. Roast in the oven until the cauliflower is crispy. Toss once of twice during cooking. This will likely take 30-40 min.
- Use toaster oven to toast the pumpkin seeds. Set aside to cool.
- Heat a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil until shimmering, put in the garbanzos (drained and rinsed) and cook, tossing frequently, until they are darker brown and crispy.
- You can add thinly sliced garlic once the garbanzos are almost done. Be careful not to allow them to burn.
- Toss together the quinoa, 1 tsp dried oregano, cauliflower/onion mixture, crispy garbanzos and pumpkin seeds. Add additional salt/pepper to taste and a squeeze of lemon. Season with crushed red pepper for an extra kick.
- Enjoy!
Love,
Pooja
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