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Easy Quinoa Recipe with Sour Cream Topping
Wondering what to do with quinoa? Here we show you an easy quinoa recipe where we mix spinach to add more nutrients. Drizzle the whole shebang with our vegan sour cream packed with healthy fats to add even more flavor.
If you need to get dinner on the table and FAST give this a try. I promise you'll love it and it will likely find a snuggly place in your dinner rotations.
Why? Because it's just so darn tasty!
Well, that and the fact that it's stuffed to the gills with some really important nutrients you need.
Take the quinoa, for starters. It's really difficult to find a grain that is THIS tasty and contains this much protein.
Plus, quinoa is high in manganese which offers MANY benefits including assisting brain function and clearing out free radicals, those snotty little molecules that cause all sorts of trouble in your body such as premature aging and cancer.
And then there's the spinach, which always seems to bring up memories of our good ol' strong pal Popeye. Spinach is sooooo important to your bone health. Why? Well, just 1 cup of spinach provides you with 200% of the amount of the Vitamin K you need for the day -- Vitamin K helps your bones stay healthy. Go spinach!
So, how will you make this delectable dish that's filled with these fabulous nutrients?
The secret to creating your very own vegan recipes is by letting the "Vegan Flavor Matches" be your guide. These cheat sheets pinpoint the foods and flavors that match perfectly with your main ingredient. Click here for a short tutorial on how to use "Vegan Flavor Matches".
Begin your adventure by gazing upon both the Quinoa Flavor Matches and the Spinach Flavor Matches. Simply zero in on your favorite foods and flavors that are listed and which you have on hand.
When all was said and done, with the Flavor Matches as my guide, my recipe came together like this...
Vegan Quinoa & Spinach with Sour Cream Topping
Serves 2
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 cup quinoa, unrinsed
2 cups veggie broth (or 2 cups water and 1 veggie bouillon cube, or equivalent powder)
4 cups coarsely chopped spinach
1 Tablespoon organic Tamari soy sauce, or to taste
1 Tablespoon lemon juice, or to taste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Salt & pepper, to taste
Heat 1/4 cup veggie broth in a large pan. Add finely chopped onion and garlic, and cook until the onion turns translucent. Next, add the unrinsed quinoa (there's no need to rinse the quinoa as you normally would since this direct heat will cook off the natural bitter coating). Let cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the 2 cups veggie broth.
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 12 minutes or until the little quinoa filaments begin to show which indicate they're done.
Add the coarsely chopped spinach -- you need a lot since spinach has this ability to turn into a teeny tiny little mound once cooked. Cover and cook until wilted.
Stir to mix. At this point you'll taste your concoction and decide what it needs. I chose to add lemon juice, Tamari, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper.
I could have stopped right then and there -- the dish is perfect on its own. But Jeff and I LOVE sauces -- they just seem to elevate any dish to gourmet status. :O)
Since sour cream is a perfect match with both quinoa and spinach, I whipped up a small batch of Sour Cream Topping in about one minute...
I started by blending 1-2 handfuls of cashews (healthy fats!) with about 2 Tablespoons lemon juice and 1/2 - 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon miso, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast, and enough water to reach the desired consistency. A final sprinkle of salt and you're done. (Be sure to add the ingredients a little at a time until you reach the flavor you like -- you can always add more!)
I much prefer this quick little rendition versus the store-bought sour cream because you can control the consistency -- plus it's missing the not-so-healthy ingredients (like preservatives) you simply don't need.
Serve this easy quinoa recipe with a slice of crispy garlic bread. Yum!
Happy Cooking!
Next: More Vegan Entrees
