QUINOA QUINOA QUINOA!!

I LOVE QUINOA!

Not the cold stuff you find in salads! NO! I'm talking about warm goey happy quinoa!
So, I set out to make a salad with quinoa but left the quinoa on the stove too long and ended up with a something way to mushy to mix into a salad. Woops! So instead I sauteed up some stuff and mixed it into the quinoa along with a little bit of this and a little bit of that... it ended up being SUPER TASTY! This from the girl who hasn't made quinoa for nearly 5 years after one bad experience!

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water
1 tsp grated ginger
1 clove garlic
2 cups chopped mushrooms of your choice
1 cup grape tomatoes
1/2 a white onion all chopped up
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp crushed red pepper
3-4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (If you're using the regular kind start w/2 and taste before you add any more)
Optional: 2-3tbsps crushed peanuts, 1/2 an avocado sliced with some lime juice squirted on top, a few tbsps chopped cilantro.

Directions:
1. Wash off the quinoa then soak it in water for 5 minutes and rinse.
2. While your quinoa is soaking, bring the 3c of water to a boil. Do NOT add salt. (You don't want to add salt to anything you're adding soy sauce too, it's just too much!)
3. Add the rinsed quinoa to the boiling water and bring the mixture back up to a boil. Then let it simmer with a lid for 20 minutes.
4. Next turn off the heat and let the quinoa sit peacefully for another 15 minutes or so.
5. While your quinoa is getting ready heat up the olive oil and brown the onion, once it starts to brown add in your garlic, crushed red pepper and ginger, next your mushrooms and finally the tomatoes.
6. Once the quinoa is ready mix the mushroom mixture and quinoa together.
7. Add soy sauce in 1 tbsp at a time, tasting as you go to make sure it doesn't taste too salty.

So, I like eating this either with avocado, crushed peanuts and cilantro sprinkled on top or with some soy yogurt.

And despite, my previous hatred of cold quinoa I've also had it cold mixed into a salad. It was better than I expected but I still prefer it warm.