The Smorgasbord

So I was browsing through a new food blog, looking for recipe inspirations the other day and came across a recipe for "Quinoa Fried Rice" and knew I had to try it. Even though the title suggests that there is indeed rice in it, the quinoa actually replaces the rice, and let me tell you, it's pretty much delicious and packs more protein than regular rice does. I took the combination of a couple of different recipes and came up with my own version, it was given two thumbs up by my in-house taste tester. I followed suit and wolfed down my own bowl, give it a try and let me know what you think.

Here's the original inspiration:
Fried Rice Quinoa

and I got the "sauce" recipe from this book:
The International Cookbook for Kids

The "main" goods:
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 diced zucchini
4-5 sliced button mushrooms
3 green onions, sliced
1 large carrot, diced
a head of broccoli, cut into small florets
3T Olive oil

The "Sauce":
1 1/2 T. Soy sauce
1 t sugar
1 t olive oil
1 t minced ginger
1/2 t salt
Whisk all the "sauce" ingredients together and set aside.

Rise your quinoa a couple of times to get the reside off from the pods, some brands come pre-rinsed, but I always rinse just to be safe. Transfer it to a saucepan with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. Fluff and set aside uncovered.

Place 2 T of the olive oil in your wok, or if you don't have one, just use a jumbo sized non-stick frying pan. Heat to med-high, after 30 seconds or so toss in your quinoa and cook for a minute or two.

Pour in the "sauce" and mix until the quinoa is coated thoroughly, and cook for about 2 minutes while stirring and mixing it in. Toss in the diced/sliced veggies and add the other tablespoon of oil and keep stirring. Cook for another 3-5 minutes, or however long you'd like. Keep eyeballing the veggies and when they look done to your liking, you're good to go.

* A side note- As the recipe was finishing up, I decided that the sauce wasn't going to be saucy enough for me, so I added another generous shake of soy sauce or two, and sprinkled another pinch of sugar in as well to balance it out. So if it doesn't look saucy enough to you, I'd encourage you to do the same. I don't have the exact measures of what I added though, as my taste-tester likes to tell me, I follow the Pirate's code when it comes to cooking....Recipes, Argh, they're more like "guidelines," ye know?