Vegetarian, Gluten free
Quinoa makes a wonderful gluten free porridge with a mild flavour and interesting texture. We’ve topped this recipe with apples, dates and pecans but you can go to town with your favourite toppings: berries, poached pears and mixed fruit compotes are all delicious options.
Ingredients (serves 4)
1 cup white quinoa
a couple of pinches of salt
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 medium Fuji apples, peeled, cored & cut in 1 cm thick slices
½ tsp ground cinnamon
4 spoonfuls of yoghurt
2 Medjool dates, pipped & chopped
handful activated pecans, broken in halves
Method
- Rinse quinoa thoroughly under running water until bubbles subside. Combine with 1 litre of water and salt in a saucepan. Bring to the boil quickly then turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, until very tender. Drain thoroughly.
- Warm the milk gently over a medium-low heat. Add the quinoa back to the pan with the vanilla and keep warm, stirring.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine apples, cinnamon and 2 Tablespoon of water. Bring to the boil then cover and turn heat down to low. Cook for 15 minutes, until very tender, stirring midway. Drain the liquid from the apples into the quinoa mixture.
- To serve, divide the quinoa between 4 warm bowls. Top each with a spoonful of yoghurt, apples, dates and pecans.
It’s so easy, when you’re tired and hungry, to look at a firgde full of nutritious food and still have no idea what to make for dinner. That’s when our family falls for the less healthy choices, because creating’ a healthy meal seems daunting.I’ve started making a list of the healthy meals we can make with what is currently in the firgde/garden/pantry. I write it out at the beginning of the week and put the list up on the firgde. If there are a couple of meals on the list, say fajitas and veggie lasagne and minestrone soup, we can choose one that sounds good confident that we have all the ingredients on hand. I often have everyone look at the list and pick one- then all that’s left to do is cook. On a busy night when I’m exhausted, it’s nice to fall back on something that feels like it was already planned and just tick it off the list!
So true Charles! Practice makes perfect 🙂