GHSS: Pepper Jack Quinoa

Once upon a time I decided to make black bean and quinoa burgers. While the name itself should have been my first red flag, the other should have been when the recipe told me that 1/4 cup of quinoa needed 2 cups of liquid. Yes, you read that right. I remember wondering where the hell that recipe was going and eventually decided (even though every part of my brain was fighting me) to take the plunge and do it their way. Cut to me ruining a dish towel trying to ring out the black bean and quinoa soup that I was left with.

After that I got smart and bought some cheese cloth for emergencies like that one. That was probably 2 years ago and I haven't used it since. Until today.

When I first read this recipe and found out that it called for 1 cup of quinoa and 4 cups of water, I almost closed the book and ended it all. But then I had a bottle of wine and decided to, again, trust the author of the cookbook.

For this particular recipe, you cook the quinoa in the 4 cups of water and then add broccoli toward the end of the cooking time. Ok, now that makes sense. You gotta have room for the broccoli to cook. At least there was a reason for this insanity. Here's where the cheese cloth came in. I know damn well that all of my colanders have holes that are way too big. Cooked or not, I'd lose some of that quinoa to my garbage disposal. Quick fix: loosely hang some cheesecloth over the colander and drain. It also makes it easy to squeeze the excess water out... OR just cook the quinoa with 2 cups of water and the broccoli separately.

Look at that y'all. I'm evolving. 

While the quinoa was doing it's thing, I prepped the rest of the dish. In a bowl you toss spinach, salt and pepper, garlic, and sour cream. What I didn't know is that I only had a few sad little dollops of sour cream left in the container. This was actually the best possible scenario because I discovered something amazing. In my refrigerator I had about half a jar of Prego alfredo sauce leftover from a casserole I made a few nights back. Now normally I would never entertain the idea of jarred alfredo sauce, because I make such a killer one from scratch, but sometimes you just want to live life without having to wash 2 extra dishes. Anyway the whole point is that I used the leftover sauce in place of the sour cream and it really gave this dish an extra punch. 

Look at the creaminess of that spinach mix

This dish was amazing. Technically, this is supposed to be served as a main dish (it's actually in the section titled "Meatless Mains") but I baked some chicken to go with it. 

Hello to the extra cup of cheese that I added

Recipe:

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

8 oz broccoli florets

4 cups packed baby spinach

1/2 cup light sour cream (or just dump in some jarred alfredo sauce)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp salt (I added more)

1/2 tsp pepper (I added way more)

4 oz (1 cup) pepper jack cheese, shredded (I used 2 cups)

1) In a 5 qt saucepot, heat quinoa and 4 cups water to boiling over high heat. Cook as label directs. Add the broccoli to the pot 5 minutes before the end of cooking time. 

2) Drain quinoa mixture well; transfer to a large bowl.

3) Add spinach, sour cream, garlic, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine.

4) Preheat broiler on high. Broil for 3 minutes or until cheese is melty and toasty.