Red Quinoa

Okay, what prompted me to write this post on my red quinoa recipe was this extremely rude colleague at work who took a look at my home cooked red quinoa pilaf and started saying...

"Yuck....what the hell is this? Looks like shit! So gross and you're eating it? It looks like germs and bacteria and it's disgusting. It's like maggots and I wouldn't even eat it and if I do, I would go into the A&E department"

And mind you, all the while as she said all the above, I was eating and enjoying the vegan red quinoa I made myself for lunch (the vegan food at work kinda sucks cos it's full of mock meat which I hate). She dissed me and said I'm eating maggots. She even took my spoon and stirred it a bit to insult it further and walked away saying she would go to the emergency room if she eats it. Seriously, what the fuck? So I thanked her for telling me that the lunch I'm eating is fucking disgusting and I'm eating gross maggots for lunch that nobody would wanna eat. Fucking bitch.

Thing is, how rude can someone be? You're so fucking ignorant to not know what quinoa is, so the least you could do is to perhaps ask what it is and shut up if you think it's gross cos I'm eating it. Didn't her momma teach her about manners and social grace? Seriously? One of my pet peeves is for people to diss the food you're eating while you're eating it. Going like "eeeeks" or "yuck"...hello? I'm still eating it do you mind shutting your pie hole? If I ever have kids in the future and they do that to other people, I'll slap their face.

Anyway, bad manners and lousy upbringing aside, apparently a lot of peeps don't know what quinoa is...so here's a bit of info...Quinoa is a very healthy grain that looks like little seeds or beads and there're 2 types, the normal quinoa which are the yellow and red ones.

The nutrient composition is very favourably compared with common cereals. Quinoa grains contain essential amino acids like lysine and good quantities of calcium, phosphorus, and iron. And among the different types of grains, quinoa has one of the highest protein content, making it super good for vegetarians and vegans. 


Anyway, it's mostly made into salad and pilaf and I have a couple of different recipes for it. Here's the one I really love and it's a savory one that I randomly invented and it happens to be my favorite:


Ingredients:
1 cup of quinoa 
2 cups of veggie stock
1/2 a stalk of broccoli chopped into smaller pieces
1/2 zucchini chopped into small cubes
1/2 eggplant chopped into small cubes
1/2 box of honjimeishi mushroom (no need to dice it up, just leave them individually)
1/2 a block of firm tofu chopped into small cubes
2 cloves of garlic
2 table spoons of olive oil
2 table spoons of miso paste
lots of cracked black pepper


First, cook the quinoa. Boil the 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of veggie stock. Bring the quinoa to boil and simmer it with the lid on until all the liquid is absorbed. It'll take awhile, about 15 minutes.


Then while waiting for the quinoa to cook, prep the veggies. Heat oil in a big pan and then throw in the garlic. When it's browned, throw in all the diced up veggies and tofu and stir fry it till it's softened. Be careful not to burn the broccoli. Normally, to soften the broccoli and give the veggie more flavor, I'll add in a bit of veggie stock for it to absorbed the stock for extra flavor. 


Once the veggie is ready, stir quinoa into the veggie in the big pan. Add a bit of warm water to the miso paste and stir it into the pan. Mix it well and then add in as much black pepper as you want. I normally add in a lot cos it's super yummy...if you like it to be a bit more salty, just add a bit more miso. And viola, it's ready to serve! 


This quinoa dish is to be eaten warm but then I sometimes eat it cold too. Doesn't bother me but it's best when it's warm. I have a couple more cold salad quinoa....maybe another time...


I'm mostly writing this to rant about the rude idiot at work....at least I know that there's a reason why I'm skinnier than she is and my ass isn't the size of a bathtub like hers....meeeeoooowww......grrrr.....