Chinese "Fried" Quinoa

I'm a big fan of the health benefits of Quinoa but really a side of steamy plain quinoa seems kind of bland and unappetizing.  So, in my quest to add things like quinoa to my diet and make my favourite dishes healthier I came up with Chinese "fried" quinoa and it's packed with veggies and flavour.


First I chopped up 2 carrots, 4-5 stalks of celery, 2 bell peppers and one medium to large onion (we love onions in our house, my son even eats them raw which I find strange).  When chopping these veggies up think bit sized little pieces similar to the frozen veggie mix with the little square carrots, lol.  Actually a frozen mix with carrots, peas, corn and even green beans would work very nicely if your short on time or patience, lol.  Now get those onion bits in a nice hot (med/high) pan or wok with a little bit of oil (I use olive oil mostly but might eventually move to grape seed as it has a higher smoking point and lighter flavour).  I cooked up the onion until it was nice a carmelized with darker almost charred looking bits flecked throughout which will give you a great flavour base.  I added the rest of the veggies just before the onions were done and cooked them until they were soft but with a bite still left to them.

To the veggies I added the dried garlic, ginger and a few good shakes of Chinese 5 spice powder which has a licorice-like flavour.  I mixed in all the seasonings then added the quinoa and peas (which were still a bit frozen).

  Keeping the pan nice and hot I let it all cook and tried my best not to constantly stir the mix as I wanted some crunchy chewiness texture like take-out fried rice has :)  Once it was done I lastly added the soy sauce and gave it a good stir.  

This dish smelled amazing and worked well paired with Asian inspired salmon.  If you want to make a complete meal out of this, leftover chopped chicken, tofu, and/or fried eggs added into the mix would be  delicious.  Green onions would be great in this colourful dish as well...really the possibilities are endless.  Hope you give this a try and enjoy it!

The Recipe:

This serves 4-6.

1 medium/large onion medium diced

2 carrots peeled and chopped

4-5 stalks of celery chopped

2 bell peppers chopped

1-1.5 cups frozen peas

1.5-2 cups cooked cooled quinoa (I left mine in the fridge overnight)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ginger powder

1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder

1/8 cup Soy sauce