This is a continuation of my how to cook quinoa recipes where I try all sorts of ways to cook quinoa. As you may well know, I’ve already mentioned before about the health benefits of quinoa and how it is a great replacement for rice. It is also gluten-free and high in iron, amongst other things.

This time around, I tried a very simple quinoa recipe with canned sardines. We happen to opened a can of sardines a few days back and I’ve some leftovers so I used it to cook it with quinoa instead. It turned out pretty good too. This further proves that quinoa is extremely versatile and goes quite well with almost anything.

As you can see, I also added some tomatoes and mushrooms to make it a complete meal by itself. So, this dish is more like an all-in-one healthy dinner. It has grains, fish and vegetables.

Quinoa recipes: Red Quinoa and sardines

Ingredients

1/2 cup red quinoa

1 cup boiling water

2 canned sardines in tomato sauce + 6 tbsp of the sauce

2 rose onions, chopped

5 cherry tomatoes, diced

5 fresh shiitake mushrooms, diced

3 button mushrooms, diced

3 tbsp ketchup

2 dried chilies, chopped

a few leaves of parsley

Instructions

1. Soak and rinse the quinoa. Then heat up a non-stick pan and stir fry the quinoa till it is dried up.

2. Add in the onions, tomatoes, chilies and mushrooms. Stir fry for a bit.

3. Add the sardines, sauce and ketchup and throw in the parsley. Stir to mix well. Add the boiling water. Stir and lower heat to medium low. Cover and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Remember to stir it every five minutes to prevent it from burning.After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and let it stand covered for another 5 minutes.

It is done when the quinoa is fluffed up and looks like fish roe as below:

For a really balanced meal, serve it on a bed of fresh green vegetables like this…

Tagged: balanced meal, cooking quinoa, fish, green vegetables, healthy dinner, how to cook quinoa, ketchup, mushrooms, quinoa, quinoa and sardines, quinoa recipes, red quinoa, sardines, tomatoes