Quinoa is the perfect ingredient to incorporate into your diet if you’re looking to make smarter food choices and lead a healthier lifestyle. Quinoa is a real superfood for many reasons. It’s a whole grain, which means that it’s packed with fiber and essential vitamins and minerals. It’s also gluten-free and easy to digest. Plus, it’s one of the few vegetarian foods that’s a complete protein, meaning that it contains all of the essential amino acids. This makes quinoa an excellent option for anyone following a plant-based diet.

And for those of us who always feel rushed to get a nutritious meal on the table in the evening, the good news is that quinoa is also really easy to prepare. It only takes 15 minutes to cook! One of my tips is that I like to cook my quinoa in vegetable stock because it infuses it with great flavor.

If you haven’t cooked with quinoa a lot, a good place to start would be to substitute it into any recipe that calls for rice. You can use it in salads or even add it to soups and stews. You can use it as a filling to stuff vegetables like bell peppers or squash. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, try using it in a dessert like rice pudding.

One of my favorite ways to prepare quinoa is my this Mixed Veg Quinoa Salad. Roasting vegetables at a high temperature caramelizes their sugars and brings out their natural sweetness.  As the vegetables roast, they brown on the outside, become buttery soft on the inside and their flavors intensify. Whenever I’m trying to get more veggies into my diet, I make several large trays of roasted veggies and store them in the fridge to snack on during the week.

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked quinoa,
1 cup roasted veggies – broccoli, bell peppers, zucchini, etc
1/4 cup boiled kidney beans,
1 cucumber, sliced,
2 tbsp chopped coriander & mint,

Dressing:
1 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp lemon juice,
1 tbsp mustard sauce,
Crushed pepper & salt to taste

Method: 
1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Pour the dressing and mix well.
3. Serve immediately.