Quinoa and I seem to have a little thing going on right now. To put it simply, I love it, cannot get enough of it, and would include it in every meal if I could. The fact that it is one of the healthiest foods that a person can eat doesn’t hurt, either. If you have not already jumped on the quinoa bandwagon, get to it!
I am a big fan of pasta, but I also love to try to develop healthier versions of pasta dishes. I thought it would be tasty to try replacing pasta with quinoa in a traditional dinner dish. The result…
Vegetable Quinoa Pasta
Servings: 2
Ingredients
3 cups of quinoa, cooked
vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1-2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 zucchini, chopped into half-moons
2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1/2 jar pasta sauce (I like to use a low-sodium Traditional red sauce)
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
black pepper, to taste
nutritional yeast, optional
Directions
1. Cook quinoa according to package directions.
2. While quinoa is cooking, line a medium skillet with a thin layer of vegetable broth. Heat the broth over medium-high heat until very hot.
3. Lower the heat to medium and add garlic, onion, tomatoes, and zucchini. Cook for approximately 10 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened. Add additional vegetable broth, as needed.
4. Stir vegetable mixture, pasta sauce, oregano, Italian seasoning, and black pepper into the cooked quinoa. Heat for approximately 2-3 minutes, or until the pasta sauce is warm.
5. Add spinach and cook an additional 2-3 minutes, or until the spinach has wilted.
6. Top your Vegetable Quinoa Pasta with nutritional yeast, if desired (you could certainly use grated Parmesan cheese, as well).
I served my Vegetable Quinoa Pasta with a side of one of my favorite vegetables…peas!
It’s so colorful and pretty. I don’t know about you, but I definitely eat with my eyes first!
This recipe makes two servings. Therefore, after I ate this for dinner I had one serving left over. Instead of eating the same dish for lunch or dinner the next day, I decided to mix things up and incorporate it into my breakfast.
I reheated the Vegetable Quinoa Pasta and to it I added two scrambled egg whites and half of a chopped avocado. This would also be great topped with a runny sunny-side up egg. On the side I ate fresh blueberries and strawberries.
This made an awesome breakfast. I am a sucker for egg and avocado, and the addition of vegetables and quinoa helped to keep me full all morning long.
So there you have it! Two delicious quinoa dishes in one!
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This looks great! Oh my goodness, I love avocado! I could eat it every day 🙂
Me too!! It’s the best!
Yep, I most definitely eat with my eyes first, and my eyes are telling me that I’d like to dig into platefuls of this quinoa dish! I’m even more intrigued by the second dinner, though; egg + avocado is one of my favorite combinations ever. 😀
Have you ever tried quinoa pasta? It’s just what it sounds like–pasta made with quinoa flour! Happy almost-Friday, love! <3
I have not tried quinoa pasta, but have heard great things about it. It is on my list of foods to try!
I love quinoa! I’ll have to try this recipe. Loved that you reheated it and added eggs and avocado. I’m reading this while on the treadmill and I’m starving all of a sudden 😉
The addition of eggs and avocado was definitely super delicious.
I’ve been meaning to eat more quinoa! This sounds awesome!
I love quinoa and can’t seem to get enough of it. I guess it’s a good problem to have, though ;).
this is a go to recipe sort of like mine, i just throw some veggies in quinoa and some sauce on it and im good to go! and nutritional yeast is never optional to me, that stuff is put on everything over here! lol
I am glad that you enjoy it, too! And yes, nutritional yeast is AWESOME!
I really need to try to cook quinoa myself, I’ve still never done it! Just bookmarked this recipe to give it a try 🙂
I hope you like it! Quinoa is super easy to make..just like cooking rice!
This would have been a great recipe for me to use when I made a whole bag of this Trader Joe’s quinoa grain mixture. I swear I ate on it for weeks! Good idea incorporating it into breakfast!
Haha, too funny! I love having lots of leftovers, though :).
I have actually never cooked quinoa before.
You should definitely give it a try. It is very very simple to make.
Quinoa is my staple. A complete protein will make and vegetarian/vegan happy! I love that you added it to pasta. I made a pasta dish a couple weeks ago and threw in some quinoa that needed to be used up and it reminded me of ground beef (not that I needed this, but it does resemble meat in chili or pasta like that for the meat eaters!) Both of these meals look delicious!
Quinoa definitely makes this vegetarian happy :).
I love quinoa!
Me too! It is so great that so many people have caught on to how delicious it is!
YUM!! gosh Im such a quinoa fan. I just got my sissy eating it, and she loves it too!
Quinoa is so tasty AND versatile. You have so many great reasons to love it.
Anything with Quinoa is so good! I found a quinoa pizza casserole I will be making soon!
That sounds so delicious. I am looking forward to that recipe!
I love quinoa!! This looks delicious. Especially quinoa with avocado!
It is amazing the combinations that you can create with quinoa. Although, my love for avocado is also pretty big so it makes sense to combine the two.
Oh my gosh, this looks super yummy!!! I’m a major quinoa fan, especially with tomato sauce added! So great!
Quinoa with tomato sauce and veggies is the way to go. I love it almost as much as using quinoa in Asian-inspired dishes.
That sounds delicious :-). Have you ever tried quinoa for breakfast? Its so yummy in the morning and will provide you with more protein than oatmeal, you should try it. Love + Shine Court star
Quinoa for breakfast is great. It definitely keeps you really full all morning!
Genius! I’m ridiculously excited about making this:)
I hope you love it. Let me know what you think! 🙂