I seem to have gotten into the unfortunate habit of adding toasted pine nuts to everything I cook. Ok, that is an exaggeration, as you probably guessed already. Not everything I cook, certainly. But many dishes, yes. Yesterday’s lunch was another one of those random occasions.
I was feeling too lazy to cook anything but lunch had to be made. I rummaged in the fridge and found a bright bunch of carrots (picked up from Decatur Farmers Market) and remnants of an onion. Pine nuts? Yes, please.
Measured out half a cup of quinoa into a pan. Boiled water in my electric tea kettle, measured out one cup, added it to the quinoa, threw in some salt, turned up the heat.
Sliced the onion and chopped the carrots.
Toasted the pine nuts in a little metal (iron?) bowl, then sauteed the vegetables in the same bowl afterward. By this time, all water had been absorbed and the quinoa was cooked. Turned off the heat, added in the sauteed vegetables and toasted pine nuts.
Made a simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil, ginger oil, chili oil. Poured it over the quinoa and vegetables, tossed it all well together. Oh, I also added some Braggs liquid aminos, just a little bit.
How did it turn out? Pretty good, I thought. I shouldn’t have added the chili oil, it made the quinoa a tad too spicy. As I took the picture above, I remember thinking that I should have sauteed some greens and added them as well. Would have made a prettier picture!
And the toasted pine nuts? Added just the perfect crunch. As expensive as these lovely nuts are, it’s nice to have them in the freezer, if only for an occasional treat. I thought I had done a job cleaning up the table and the sides of the bowl but that one grain of quinoa managed to get away…