Quinoa Side Dish

quinoa seems to be the new cous cous. or rice. or whatever. i've been meaning to try it...but i mean to do a lot of things.

finally i found an organic bag for $2.99 (score) at my local grocery store, so i decided to whip some up.
i shall have you know that we LOVE IT! it's heartier than cous cous, has a nice nutty flavor & is so freaking easy. it also cooked up perfectly...unlike rice seems to.

Quinoa Side Dish
1 tblps butter
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups chicken broth
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tblsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1 tblsp onion powder
dash of lemon juice

Directions: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the quinoa & toast, stirring now & again, until lightly browned (about 5 min) Stir in the broth & bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover & cook for about 15 min until quinoa is tender (you'll know it's ready because you'll see these little squiggly lines coming out of the quinoa)

Toss the quinoa together with the garlic, parsley, thyme, onion powder & salt. Sprinkle with the lemon juice & serve.

So simple & really good. We ate this, alone, for dinner.
Tonight i'm going to make quinoa again & toss in some smoked turkey (that the husband smoked this weekend) & fresh basil.

I think i'll add some toasted pine nuts (if i feel like dropping the $ on them) as well.
You can pretty much do whatever you want with this stuff.
go & buy thee some quinoa!


Notes: for the chicken broth i used 2 cups of water + 2 chicken boullion cubes. Next time i'm only going to use 1 cube because it was a bit salty.