Red and White Quinoa with Basil and Spring Vegetables
Cooking time: 20 mins
Preparation time: 0 mins
Serves: 2 (can easily be doubled to serve 4)
Vegetarian: Yes
Ingredients:
- 2 large carrots
- 1 pack of ready to eat Red and White Quinoa
- 100g mange tout, cut in half
- 200g peas (from the freezer)
- 25g (1 good knob) butter
- 8 SunBlush® Tomatoes, cut in half
- 75g cheddar, grated
- 1 small bunch (25-28g, typical supermarket size) of basil, leaves only, sliced
- Salt and black pepper
How to cook it:
- Bring a medium sized pan of lightly salted water to the boil. Peel the carrots, cut them in half and slice them into 1cm slices. Put them in the water to boil for 5 minutes
- Next, ladle 100ml of the carrot cooking water into a shallow pan, add the Quinoa then warm through over a medium heat. If necessary add a little more of the cooking water so that the Quinoa is creamy in the way a risotto is
- Add the mange tout and peas to the carrot pan, bring back to the boil then boil for 2 minutes. Strain into a colander or sieve then return to the pan. Add the SunBlush® Tomatoes and half of the butter, then sauté for 1 minute - this evaporates the excess water and intensifies the flavour of the vegetables
- To finish, stir the remaining butter, cheese and basil into the quinoa, add the vegetables, season to taste then serve
KIDS CORNER
This is a great dish for children of all ages. For my family, I make one and a half times the recipe. I take out one of the portions before I add the salt at the end, chop a small amount for my 1 year old and my 3 year old eats the quinoa and vegetables as they are. With a little water added this makes an excellent puree for the tiny and toothless.
We used the Quinoa itself to mix with purees when we were getting both boys onto more textured solids. A good idea is to freeze a packet of quinoa in ice cube trays, then you have pre-portioned amounts to add to each meal with no waste.
