I often don’t spend much time on side dishes when cooking dinner for my family. I usually put most of my attention towards the main dish and stick with steamed or roasted veggies seasoned simply with salt and pepper for the rest of the meal. A few nights ago, however, I decided to use the rest of the red quinoa that was in my refrigerator. In a desire to dress it up a bit, I came up with a lemony quinoa mixed with crumbled feta. It was delicious!
LEMONY QUINOA WITH FETA AND ALMONDS
Downloadable PDF of Lemony Quinoa with Feta and Almonds
- In a medium saucepan, combine:
- 3/4 cup red quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Turn heat off and let quinoa sit a few minutes to absorb the rest of the liquid, if any is remaining.
- Stir in:
- Zest from one lemon
- Serve 1/2 cup of the lemony quinoa on a plate or a small bowl.
- On top of each serving of quinoa, sprinkle up to:
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta (I use reduced fat)
- 2 Tablespoons slivered almonds
Couldn’t be an easier, tastier side dish to fish or chicken. It would also be wonderful with some fresh chopped parsley, but my parsley is just starting to grow back after it quit growing during the 80-some days of triple digit heat we’ve had so far (I think I read yesterday marked 87 days, or today will?).
The lemon really makes the quinoa pop and the feta adds a nice creamy texture while the almonds add a light crunch. All in all, it tastes very fresh and delicious. This will be on the regular side dish rotation from now on.
Downloadable PDF of Lemony Quinoa with Feta and Almonds
In other news, I found that a couple of friends “pinned” a couple of my recipes to Pinterest, as did someone else not too long ago! I was very excited to see my posts pinned on a few boards here and there – thank you for liking them enough to pin them! If you haven’t checked out Pinterest yet, it’s quite addicting!
What are your favorite quick and easy side dishes?
~Ingredients to nourish the body put together in ways to nourish the soul to share with family and friends to nourish the heart~
Gourmet Memoirs 