Life in a Nutshell: Cheesey Quinoa

This is cross-posted as a guest post over at Miss Limer's blog, food porn.

This evening, I am going to share with you one of my favorite ‘Mother Hubbard’ recipes (called so because you can use up whatever is leftover in the kitchen) – Cheesey Quinoa.

In case you don’t know (though, as readers of a foodie blog, I imagine you do,) Quinoa is a type of grain. I’ll be lazy and direct you to the wiki about quinoa where you can read up on it yourself.
Done? Ok, here we go.
You’re going to need two cups of stock. I use vegetable, as my husband is a vegetarian. You can use chicken if you prefer. It doesn’t really matter. Normally, I use boxed stock, but I didn’t have any today, so I used bullion, which needs to be dissolved in water (once cube per cup of water.)

While that is working, heat some oil in a pan. Again, whatever you have available. I use extra virgin olive oil. Then add in your vegetables. Today, I used carrots and onions. Usually, I also add mushrooms (didn’t have any today.) You can put in whatever pleases you most. You can use fresh, frozen, canned, or whatever.
Along with the veggies, add in some garlic. You can put in some meat at this point (or meat substitute.) I put in frozen soy chicken substitute. Again, for the vegetarian.

Once the meat is cooked and the vegetables are soft, stir in one cup of Quinoa.

Be aware, quinoa is small and jumpy. It can make a mess and be a bit of a pain to clean up.
Next, pour in your two cups of stock. You can add some seasoning at this point. I used salt, pepper, parsley and dill. You could make it Mexican by taking out the dill and putting in cumin and cilantro, or make it Italian by putting in oregano and basil. Mix it up a bit. Have some fun. It’s dinner, not rocket science.

Turn the heat down to medium and cook this until the liquid is mostly gone. The longer you let the quinoa sit and soak up water, the softer it will be.

Once the liquid is mostly gone, stir in one egg and half a cup of milk. This will help it all to thicken up. Then, add some sour cream (to taste; I add about half a cup to a cup. You can put in more, or none at all, whatever you like) and about half a cup of shredded cheddar cheese.

Then, top it all off with more of the cheesey goodness.

If you have started this whole process in an oven safe pan (like the cast iron one, I used,) stick the whole thing CAREFULLY into an oven set at 350 (F). If you haven’t, get your favorite casserole dish, pour the whole shebang into it, top with more cheese (if your cheese ended up on the bottom) and put THAT whole thing into the oven.