It has been a while since I posted a recipe so I thought it was about time. I got home from work on Friday and didn’t have a dinner plan already. I know, I know. I did what I do best and I conferred with Mr. Google. We chatted back and forth for a little while then finally decided to try out an interesting looking dish from Eat Good For Life.
I was in the mood for a little quinoa. In my head that came out in the style of I’m in the mood to kick a little a$$ from The Cutting Edge. Weird, I know. So, quinoa it was. A Broccoli Quinoa Casserole to be technical. I was skeptical at first but it turned out awesome and that makes me want to share it with the world. Yes, that means you. The three of you that are reading this. wink wink
Begin shall we? Ok. First off, let us assume you are making it. It is more fun that way. At least for me it is.
You are going to want to pre-heat that oven of yours to 400F. Done. Awesome.
Grab 9 x 13 baking dish. Put your quinoa and your green onions in it. That would be 2.5 cups of uncooked quinoa and 3 green onions, chopped. Set it aside.
Now the original recipe wants you to microwave your broccoli for a few minutes first just to start the cooking process because it won’t be in the oven as long as the whole dish. I did do this but in hindsight. I don’t think I needed to. It actually took much longer in the oven than the stated time and I think it would have been just fine without the microwave time. So feel free to do as you please here.
Next up, in a large bowl mix together :
4.5 cups of vegetable stock or water I used water because I am crazy like that,
2 tbsp of pesto sauce or to your liking I personally think a little more would of been better,
2 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder I was flying by the seat of my pants on this recipe having just googled and was short on these so I used their evil cousin flour because I had some
1 1/2 tsp of salt. I used sea salt.
Reading through the orignal recipe, it says you are now supposed to heat the mixutre to a boil either on the stove top or microwave. I, however, skipped this step. Apparently, I can google with the best of them but reading the full instructions is not for me. This could be why mine took longer to bake. Although, I really don’t care because it turned out awesome anyway. So again, feel free to make your own executive decision here.
What I actually did next was add these things to the quinoa in the baking dish:
2 cups of spinach, chopped
2 cups of mozzarella cheese, grated I only added about 3/4 of the mozza.
1/3 of a cup of parmesan cheese.
Then I added the liquid mixture to it and stirred it all up nice and good. I was not to impressed with how it looked and this is when I started to become skeptical as to whether Mr. Google had led me astray or not. If you also feel this way fear not.
After 50 minutes, I took it out of the oven added the rest of the mozza and sprinkled on a tad more parmesan. If I had any bread crumbs or something of the sort they may have been good to add here too but alas I did not. Probably because I try to stay away from all that shiz. I suck it back in the oven on broil for 5 minutes and voila.
I scooped it out and tried to take the obligatory Instagram pic. The sun was getting in my way no matter how I tried. This annoyed me at first but then I smiled. Spring is here and the sun is shining into my kitchen and this my friend makes my heart happier than any perfect picture could.
You can find the original recipe here for your viewing pleasure. You can print without the drooling over the pictures here.
Let me know if you try it. I am always searching for new recipes to try out. What is your favourite thing to make right now?
