Herbed Qunioa

Quinoa- such a funny word!! I love watching people pronounce Quinoa, because lets agree, its not very 'natural' to say. Quinoa, pronounced like 'keen- wah' is a total super food since it contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source among plant foods.


Herbed Quinoa:

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 large bunch flat-leaf parsley 
• 1 bunch chives, snipped into 1/4-inch lengths
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• Toasted pine nuts or sliced almonds
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• In a saucepan, combine quinoa and chicken stock; bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until all liquid is absorbed and the grains are translucent, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Meanwhile, pick 1/2 cup parsley leaves from stems, chop leaves coarsely, and set aside. Place remaining parsley leaves, parsley stems, and 1/4 cup water in a food processor; process until pureed. Squeeze all liquid from the puree, discard solids, and set parsley juice aside.
• For an added crunch toast pine nuts or sliced almonds in the oven. Make sure you keep a close eye on this step (my mom and I nearly set the house on fire after torching our pine nuts. Luckily we had almonds as a back up!)
• In a bowl add snipped chives, butter, nuts, reserved parsley juice and chopped parsley into cooked quinoa, and mix until combined. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, and serve.