quinoa!

The problem with coming up with recipes while cooking dinner is that it's hard to get a good photo of the result when it's dark outside. Now that I don't have access to professional studio equipment (one of the few things I really, truly miss about college), I have to make due with window light. And in New England, dinner time in the winter = pitch black outside. So you'll have to trust me that last night's recipe-on-the-fly looked yummy.

I began with the intention of making quinoa and green beans and not much else. Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) was my first foray into new and exciting grains; I picked up a box of organic quinoa at Trader Joe's a few months ago when I was starting a mostly vegan diet and had no idea what to eat. That purchase turned out to be the beginning of something special -- not only is quinoa high in protein, iron, magnesium, and fiber, but it's also nearly impossible to mess up. Rinse, cook in a 2:1 ratio of water to grain for 10-15 minutes, eat. No pre-soaking, no multi-hour cook times. It's reminiscent of couscous when it's done.

So I had my quinoa on the stove, and I was tossing green beans in a pot of water, when I remembered the sad lonely kale in the crisper. (Kale is one of those super-nutritious green leafies that I try to squeeze in whenever possible to make up for the days when I'm lazy and eat nothing but almond butter and apples.) The one problem with kale is that it doesn't taste very good. So I sliced up some onion (yum!). The rest of it went like this:


1/2 cup quinoa, cooked
2 or 3 leaves kale, torn into bit-sized pieces
1/4 large onion, chopped
handful green beans
2 tablespoons unfiltered extra virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste

Heat green beans in boiling water until bright green and tender. Remove from water and chop into 1-2 inch pieces. In a pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook for a few minutes until tender. Add kale and heat until it starts to wilt, stirring occasionally. Add green beans and sea salt, cook for another 3 minutes, then remove from heat. Place greens on a plate and top with quinoa.