I made this recipe for my sister and her coworker the other day for lunch.  We all loved it.  Of course when I cook I don’t always follow the recipe to the letter, so I will give you the recipe from the book, and then I will tell you what I did differently.  I always encourage creativity when cooking!

If you would like to know more about quinoa (pronounced keenwa) read my post Superfood – Quinoa or visit Quinoa365

You mostly see the other goodies in the meal, rather than the quinoa, but it is in there!  See the little brown/redish specks… that’s it.  Remember it’s like rice and fluffs up 3 x its size.

The recipe is taken from Quinoa: The Everyday Superfood 365 cookbook.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2/3 cups quinoa
• 1 tsp olive oil (or your choice)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 1/2 cups diced chicken, shrimp, pork, or tofu
• 1 tsp minced fresh garlic
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced red bell pepper (about 1 pepper)
• 3/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed
• 1/2 cup sliced green onion
• 1/4 cup soy sauce or gluten-free tamari

Instructions

1. Bring water and quinoa to a boil in medium saucepan.  Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 min.  Turn the heat off and leave the covered saucepan on the burner for another 6 min. Fluff with fork.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large wok or saucepan on med-high heat.  Fry the beaten eggs as you would a large pancake, flipping once to cook both sides.  Remove the egg from the pan, slice thinly and set aside.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of the sesame oil in the same pan on med-high heat.  Fry the diced chicken with the garlic until browned and cooked through. Remove from pan and side aside
4. Rduce the heat to med and add the remaining 1 tbsp sesame oil. Saute the celery for about 4 min.  Add the red pepper and peas, cooking for another 3 min, until the veggies are tender.  Add the quinoa, green onion and soy sauce to the veggies.  Fold in the fried egg and the chicken and cook for 1 – 2 min to warm up the mixture.  Adjust the seasoning if desired and serve immediately.

What I changed for the ingredients

• I used all olive oil (no sesame).
• I didn’t use pepper.
• I didn’t add soy sauce or tamari.
• I used scollops and shrimp.
• I used yellow beans, carrots, and tomato for veggies
• I used a regular onion
• Did not use celery

How I prepared the meal

1. Saute chopped onion and garlic in olive oil for 1 – 2 min.  Add thawed scollops and fry until almost cooked.  Add pre-cooked shrimp (looks orange – not brown) when scollops are almost done.  The shrimp just need to be headed through. (If you prefer set aside the seafood until after veggies are sautéd.)
2. Prepare quinoa the same as the recipe above.
3. Prepare egg – I used a hand blender to make the egg fluffy and put in a small pan to cook.  I flipped it over like a pancake in the instructions above.  I sliced into squares.  I’m thankful for this instruction because when I tried to add egg into stir-fry type meals like this before I would just add the egg right into the mixture I was cooking.  This is definitely a better option!
4. Add in any type of veggies you would like with a bit more olive oil.  I used small pieces of yellow beans and chopped baby carrots and some sliced baby tomatoes. Saute until desired tenderness.
5. Add in fish and egg and stir.  Add in quinoa and stir and let cook for a couple minutes on med-low heat.
6. Serve right away like it says above.  I’m sure it is fine as a left over, but we didn’t have any left over to find out!  It was that good!

Let me know if you try this recipe out!

When you cook, do you follow the recipe or make your own substitutions/be creative?