If you love fried rice, and want to be healthier, you must try this quinoa fried rice !! This fried rice is much more healthier as it is using quinoa than rice.
As my quinoa is expiring soon, I tried to cook different stuffs using quinoa to make it nicer. As you may have notice, quinoa has its own unique texture. It takes me sometime to be acquaintances with the texture and taste. Most of the time, I tried to use Chinese, Indian, or Mexican spices to cook quinoa, instead of just tossing it in a salad.
Today my last day at home, I will be flying tomorrow, how excited !!! Before flying, it’s a disaster with so much stuffs to do. One of the stuffs to do is cleaning my fridge. There is a bit of different stuffs in my fridge, like half cucumber, one tomato, half capsicum. I just has no idea what to cook with all those half stuffs. That’s why I decided to throw everything and make fried rice.
Unfortunately, I didn’t cook rice yesterday. There is no old-rice in my fridge. I don’t like to make fried rice with a new cook rice, usually it will turns out soggy. Moreover, I’m leaving soon, I don’t want to have leftover rice sitting in my fridge as well. That’s where I thought of quinoa. I have some quinoa left in my pantry, that is almost expiring. I’m not exactly sure why quinoa has expired date, it’s a grain. From what I know, there is no expired date in grain.
I realised how everything has expired date here, even in eggs. Back in Indonesia, there is no expired date at all in egg. When my mom visited me in Australia, she will feel funny how most of the stuffs has expired date when they don’t have it in Indonesia. I guess Australia just putting a strict rule in health to make sure no one will get sick.
Back to my quinoa fried rice, the fried rice turns out pretty nice. It taste exactly like normal fried rice, just a smaller rice and different texture. I also add my vegetables and mince, with less quinoa. So, it’s more like eating 70% vegetable + meat and 30% quinoa. Dydy also like it so much, and doesn’t mind that the small texture of quinoa.
- ½ cup quinoa
- 1 cup water
- 1 tomato chopped
- ½ capsicum chopped
- ½ cucumber chopped
- ½ onion chopped
- 3 garlic minced
- 1 cup corn
- 1 cup potato cubed
- 1 cup mince
- ½ teaspoon chicken stock powder
- ½ teaspoon chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ¼ teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon salt (add more according to your taste)
- Heat oil in a pan, fried onion and garlic until flavoursome.
- Add all other vegetables and mince, except cucumber and corn. Stir fry for 1 minutes.
- Add quinoa, chicken stock, and water. Mix well and bring to boil.
- Lower the heat, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until quinoa absorb the water, and cooked.
- Add chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, and salt. Mix until combined.
- Check salt seasonings, and quinoa fried rice ready to be served.