A Month-of-Eggs: Quinoa with Eggs and Other Good Stuff

While having brunch at a chain restaurant recently (The Good Egg), I was intrigued by, and ordered, a bowl of fancied up quinoa topped with eggs. Yummers! And talk about hearty not to mention so good for you.

I didn’t get their recipe, but here is my take on the dish. I served this for dinner one night and it was a hit! A vegetarian main dish that no will one notice is missing the meat. DH does not like kale, but, teehee, he didn’t even notice it was kale. Or if he did, he thought it was spinach ‘cause I dump that into a lot of my recipes.

Quinoa with Eggs and Other Good Stuff (serves 4)

1 cup quinoa

2 cups vegetable broth

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup mushrooms, cut into chunks

3 green onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

½ cup tomatoes, chopped (or use sun-dried tomatoes)

1 large handful kale, chopped into chunks

8 eggs, sunny side up or soft-poached

4 tablespoons Asiago cheese

Rinse the quinoa per package instructions. [very important step]

Put rinsed quinoa in sauce pan with 2 cups of broth. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer. It should be done in 15-20 minutes. When done, the quinoa will have a gelatinous look, like tiny eyeballs.

While quinoa is simmering, melt the butter in a skillet. Add mushrooms, onions, garlic, and tomatoes. and stir until tomatoes are softening and the mushrooms are tender. Immediately add the kale and mix together thoroughly.

Remove from heat and prepare the eggs the way you like them. We like them soft and runny, but if you’re a hard egg person, cook them that way.

When the eggs are almost done, stir veggies into the quinoa. Put one cup (or so) of quinoa mixture on a plate or large flat bowl. Sprinkle on a tablespoon of cheese on each dish. Top with eggs and serve.

This goes great with corn muffins and a fruit salad.

NOTE: It is really important to rinse off the coating nature puts on quinoa or you will end up with a bitter dish.

Of course, you can substitute chicken or beef broth just as easily as the vegetable broth. Some use no broth and just use water.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up   “I feel so healthy.” Smart aleck. But he did like this dish and said I should make it again. Since it was just the two of us, I had leftover quinoa mixture which will be a side with salmon later this week!

February: The Month-of-??? Recipes

It’s that time of year again. I blog daily in February with a recipe-a-day that fit a category. Two years ago, I blogged soup recipes daily. Last year I blogged chicken recipes. So what’s this February going to be?

As in the past, I let you, Dear Readers, decide that.

The three options for you are:

Eggs

Mini-Desserts

Appetizers

Eggs you say? Yes, eggs. Did you know the traditional chef’s toque has 100 pleats because it was said a real chef could prepare eggs 100 ways. Shoot, I only need to do 28 if you pick this one.

Mini-Desserts in shot glasses (though no longer confined there) began with Seasons 52, a wonderful chain restaurant that serves un-chain-like food. Seriously, look for one near you. I don’t often recommend restaurants. This one I do. But back to the desserts: There is something about a one or two-bite bit of sweetness after a meal that is satisfying on many levels--one of which is lowered calorie count.

Appetizers are such fun. I love appetizers parties where happy hour turns into dinner because of the heft and variety of appetizers served. In fact (she says with no modesty at all), my appetizer parties have brought me a small amount of acclaim.

Thems the three. Which do you want and/or need?

But why vote now? February seems so far away. Did you read my OCD post earlier? Well, in case you didn’t notice, there are a few holiday thingies coming up that will gobble up time, and it takes time to figure out what I am going to fix every day for 28 days straight. Oh, and did I mention the OCD post? So give me time to process this selection. Comments here, on FaceBook, and on Twitter will be combined to declare the winning category.

So comment below. Which category would you like to have 28 recipes for? Eggs, mini-desserts, or appetizers? The deadline for voting is December 1. Vote now and get your friends to vote, too.

I’m waiting with bated breath for the results. Really.