Recipe: Quintessential Quinoa Curry

"Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus." -Peter Ustinov

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Sometimes I like to get creative with my food. There is something to be said for throwing some herbs and spices together for the first time and seeing how it turns out. I remember the first time I attempted to mimic an Indian dish...I tried to harness the greatness that is Aloo Gobi. It smelled good. It looked good. It tasted like crap. That is the beauty of blogs like this one...I'm only going to post up the ones that actually turn out well.

Lately I've been experimenting with organic apple cider vinegar. A lot of vegetarian/vegan recipe enthusiasts probably noticed that it tends to be used in a lot of herbivore dishes. I would highlight it as a key ingredient to this very simple quinoa side dish.

Ingredients
0.5 cup organic quinoa
2-4 tablespoons organic olive oil
1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar
1-2 cloves organic garlic
0.125 teaspoon organic turmeric
1 teaspoon organic ground cumin
0.25 teaspoon organic paprika
1-2 pinches celtic sea salt

Equipment
1 Stove
1 Large saucepan with lid

Steps:
1. Pour 0.5 cup of quinoa into the large saucepan. Add 1.25 cups of filtered water, and gently stir so that there is no dry pockets of quinoa that won't steam well.

2. Mince or press the garlic cloves, then add all ingredients to the saucepan. Stir gently for a few seconds so that the spices are even distributed throughout the pan.

3. Cover the saucepan with a lid, and turn on the stove to medium or medium-high. Once the quinoa starts boiling, stir it a few times, and the cover it back up and set the stove to low.

4. After all the water as steamed out, turn off the stove, keep the cover on and let it sit and steam for a good five to six minutes (the longer you wait, the softer your quinoa).

5. Serve it up and enjoy! This serving size feeds one to two people quite well.

End notes: I call this recipe "curry"...but it does not fit the description in the traditional sense. It's a simple and easy way to give your quinoa an exotic Indian-esque flavor. If your not a stickler for organic and want something quick, then you can pair this with Trader Joe's vegetable samosas and garlic tandoori naan. I believe it can also be paired with various Thai curries and vegetables quite well.