Quinoa Kichidi

Quinoa is rapidly becoming a good substitute for rice in our home – It has a very distinctive taste and luckily one that all of us, right down to my toddler love. It actually tastes good with sambar, rasam, morekozhumbu , kootus and vetha kozhambu – It is protein packed and even smaller amounts tend to fill you up quickly . This seed is a keeper!

For those who have been following and reading my blog, you know that I have adopted some sneaky mom tactics in infusing veggies in just about every food, from pasta sauces, to upmas to chappatis and idli-dosais! Not that we don’t eat cut veggies – in fact veggies and curries are our sustenance, but those dishes more known to be veggie free like pongals and upmas, I use veggie juice as my base, so none of the goodness of the veggies is compromised on or eliminated. I used all of the juice and the fibers – do not strain out just the juice.

Quinoa also cooks better in a pressure cooker, with lot less water than you keep for rice and a lot less time to cook as well.

So here is my recipe – I presented this to you in my apple plates J

Ingredients

1 and ½ cups of Quinoa

1 cup of water

Juice of 1 carrot, 1 tomato and 1 red bell pepper

1 chili

Thakda spices of choice – I used only mustard and asafetida and a little turmeric

Salt to taste

1 tsp of olive oil or other

½ cup grated coconuts

A few cashews (entirely optional)

Preparation

First juice your veggies/fruit to be technical about tomatoes J

In a pan, use 1 tsp of oil and pop the mustard and add the asafetida and turmeric.

Pour the puree and allow it to boil

Add salt as well

Get a pressure-cooker ready utensil/pot and add the quinoa (wash first) and add the juice

Stir the pot well and allow it to pressure cook for about 2 -3 minutes after rocker gets going.

Remove from cooker and turn well because the fiber from the juice would’ve settled on the top.

Put it in a large pan and break it up into florets.

Slightly toast the coconut

Top it over the khichdi

Mix in and serve hot with pickle and yogurt or other options!

Enjoy a guilt-free happy meal (:

Sending this to Oh Taste and See's Quinoa Event

Day 2 of Week long Blogging Marathon
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