![Yet again, the curse of the weeknight cook struck. I got home relatively early and decided that hey, it would be a great night to try and cook something and have some leftovers for the next couple days [well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, leftovers rarely last me more than 2 days].
So I set out on my bike to make a quick trip to Market Basket to pick up some veggies to roast and add to a quinoa dish that I vaguely remembered from a family gathering a long time ago. This Market Basket is actually insanely busy all the time [Somerville Ave Market Basket - actually infamous because you cannot move shopping carts down the aisles because of the masses of people] so I grabbed a hand basket and quickly found what I needed. I’m standing in line when I realize I don’t have my wallet. Damn.
After biking the couple blocks home and then back, I picked up my groceries and checked out. Really, my groceries consisted of impulse buys.
the vegetables I wanted for my dinner
oatmeal [I might be the most boringly regular person for breakfast]
anything else I could fit into the backpack I brought
Got home. Chopped vegetables. Started the quinoa. Put vegetables in oven. 25 minutes later I had an awesome meal. Weeknight win? I’d say so.
Roasted Vegetable and Tomato Quinoa
- vegetables for roasting [I used 1 eggplant and 2 zucchini… but I probably could have made this work with anything similar]
- 1 red onion
- a couple small tomatoes/1 container cherry tomatoes
- olive oil
- 1.5 c dry quinoa + 3 c water for cooking
- salt and pepper
- crumbled feta cheese [optional]
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Combine quinoa with water in a pot; bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer.
Meanwhile, chop zucchini into half-circles and cut eggplant into flat pieces lengthwise. Cut the onion into flat discs as well, and then in half (so that pieces are in strips). Add all vegetables to a baking tray or two, pour olive oil over it all and add some salt and pepper. Mix around with your hands until veggies are well-covered. Put in the oven.
Chop tomatoes into chunks, or halve them if using cherry tomatoes. Keep an eye on the vegetables while they roast (it should take ~20 minutes, maybe a little longer for the eggplant). For the last couple minutes, turn the broiler on to give them a little extra crispiness. Remove promptly before they burn.
Add zucchini and onions to the cooked quinoa, and mix with a fork. Cut cooked eggplant into chunks as well, and throw it into the quinoa too. Generously add salt and pepper; combine with chopped tomatoes [and crumbled feta, if using]. Serve warm or refrigerated.
As always, I’m having trouble not breaking into the fridge for more of this an hour later…](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luf9z51WJk1qazzf6o1_500.jpg)
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Yet again, the curse of the weeknight cook struck. I got home relatively early and decided that hey, it would be a great night to try and cook something and have some leftovers for the next couple days [well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, leftovers rarely last me more than 2 days].
So I set out on my bike to make a quick trip to Market Basket to pick up some veggies to roast and add to a quinoa dish that I vaguely remembered from a family gathering a long time ago. This Market Basket is actually insanely busy all the time [Somerville Ave Market Basket - actually infamous because you cannot move shopping carts down the aisles because of the masses of people] so I grabbed a hand basket and quickly found what I needed. I’m standing in line when I realize I don’t have my wallet. Damn.
After biking the couple blocks home and then back, I picked up my groceries and checked out. Really, my groceries consisted of impulse buys.
- the vegetables I wanted for my dinner
- oatmeal [I might be the most boringly regular person for breakfast]
- anything else I could fit into the backpack I brought
Got home. Chopped vegetables. Started the quinoa. Put vegetables in oven. 25 minutes later I had an awesome meal. Weeknight win? I’d say so.
Roasted Vegetable and Tomato Quinoa
- vegetables for roasting [I used 1 eggplant and 2 zucchini… but I probably could have made this work with anything similar]
- 1 red onion
- a couple small tomatoes/1 container cherry tomatoes
- olive oil
- 1.5 c dry quinoa + 3 c water for cooking
- salt and pepper
- crumbled feta cheese [optional]
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Combine quinoa with water in a pot; bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer.
Meanwhile, chop zucchini into half-circles and cut eggplant into flat pieces lengthwise. Cut the onion into flat discs as well, and then in half (so that pieces are in strips). Add all vegetables to a baking tray or two, pour olive oil over it all and add some salt and pepper. Mix around with your hands until veggies are well-covered. Put in the oven.
Chop tomatoes into chunks, or halve them if using cherry tomatoes. Keep an eye on the vegetables while they roast (it should take ~20 minutes, maybe a little longer for the eggplant). For the last couple minutes, turn the broiler on to give them a little extra crispiness. Remove promptly before they burn.
Add zucchini and onions to the cooked quinoa, and mix with a fork. Cut cooked eggplant into chunks as well, and throw it into the quinoa too. Generously add salt and pepper; combine with chopped tomatoes [and crumbled feta, if using]. Serve warm or refrigerated.
As always, I’m having trouble not breaking into the fridge for more of this an hour later…
