Vegetable Quinoa Dinner with Egg

Have you ever tried "Quinoa?" coin-no-ah? kiwi-no-wa? queen-wah? KEY-NWA! The "supergrain!" Or as the packaging also informs, its actually a seed from a plant similar to spinach! And a darn tasty one at that!

This dish is so filling, and healthy and delish! I've always been a meat and potatoes (or french fries and ice cream) type of gal, but I've also had a few roomies and besties who are strictly vegetarian. I LOVE vegetables too, and I have been trying more to center my meals around them.

Here's what you need for this dish:

1 3/4 cup Vegetable Broth (or water or other broth...)
1 cup Quinoa (rinsed in cold water and strained well)
1 cup fresh Spinach leaves
2 Roma Tomatoes, diced
1 Avocado, diced
2 Eggs
Cilantro Dressing (store bought or see recipe below)
Salt, Pepper, Parmesan, Hot Sauce, Sour Cream (all optional and to taste)

Let's get this party started!

Combine vegetable broth and quinoa in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stir, cover and immediately reduce heat to simmer. Simmer 12-18 minutes until liquid is absorbed, quinoa looks semi-translucent, and you see the "germ" sticking out on the quinoa (like little tails on each seed.)  Cooking directions on quinoa packaging always ask for 2 parts liquid and 1 part quinoa, but I find that it ends up like soup and never fully absorbs, so I've lowered the liquid content for a more "rice-like" consistency.

While the quinoa is cooking, get your veggies ready! I like using baby spinach leaves because they're already bite size, and then dice up the tomato and avocado into bite sized bits. Simple!

When the quinoa is about 2 minutes from finishing cooking, I'll fry up my eggs. You could fry or poach them, both would give you that oozy delicious yolk that brings everything together.

Scoop a hefty serving spoon full of quinoa onto your plate or large bowl, arrange your spinach, avocado, and tomato on the quinoa, drop your eggs on top! Lastly, add a little salt and pepper (and a pinch of parmesan if you like) and drizzle some cilantro dressing over everything. Mix it all up and chow down!

I cheated this time and used store bought cilantro dressing, but i like a lighter home made dressing typically. You can find an excellent recipe for that HERE

Quinoa is seriously great with a bunch of different stuff. Mix in whatever you like! I even like it cooked in veggie broth then mixed up with a little sour cream and a lot of Cholula! Yum!

On another note, Here's what I got into today... stayin' in those pines :)

Enjoy!