Quinoa Pilaf Recipe

I think you’ll love our quinoa pilaf recipe.

Who doesn’t like pilaf, after all?

But most people are more familiar with rice pilaf. Why use quinoa instead of rice?

Maybe you appreciate the fact that quinoa is higher in protein than rice. Or perhaps you appreciate that it’s lower in net carbs and total carbs than rice. Perchance you want to use it rather than rice because it has a lower glycemic index. Or maybe you just want a change from the normal pilaf routine!

At any rate, you’ll really enjoy this recipe.

The smell of the roasted quinoa was almost maddening it smelled so good.

Ingredients for our quinoa pilaf recipe

• 2 Tbs Oil
  
  
• 1 Cup Quinoa, rinsed--not cooked
  
  
• 1 Onion, thinly sliced (see “A few other considerations” below for they way we did this)
  
  
• 1 Cup carrots, diced (1 medium and 1 small)
  
  
• 2 Stalks celery, chopped
  
  
• 2 Garlic cloves (or to taste), minced
  
  
• 2 Cups Water
  
  
• ¾ tsp Salt
  
  
• ⅛ tsp Pepper

How to make our quinoa pilaf recipe

1. Warm oil in large pot on Med/Low heat.
   
   
2. Add quinoa and stir.
   
   
3. Let it roast, stirring often but not continuously until it turns a medium brown color. It may take about 10 minutes.
   
   
4. Add onion and garlic and let them warm a few minutes.
   
   
5. Add veggies and water, salt and pepper.
   
   
6. Stir.
   
   
7. Let simmer, covered about 17 minutes.

Our take on this quinoa pilaf recipe

What we’d do or not do next time

Lori served this with roasted almonds. Big mistake. They didn’t taste very good with the pilaf.

She also sprinkled curry powder on her serving of the pilaf and really liked it. So you might want to try adding some when you’re adding the salt and pepper.

Also, try serving this with romaine lettuce. Yum.

Let’s talk about the consistency of the veggies. If we make this recipe again here’s how we’d do it...

1. Roast the quinoa.
   
   
2. Add the water, salt, and pepper.
   
   
3. Cook for about 8 or 9 minutes.
   
   
4. Add the veggies and cook the rest of the time. 

Why? And what does this have to do with veggies? We don't usually like to cook our veggies until they’re soft. And this is what ended up happening with our original recipe. Using this modified recipe the veggies are still al dente at the end.

A few other considerations

We like to cook with Grapeseed oil. All other oils we have access to become acidic when they’re heated.

We used a food processor to slice the onion. We don’t know any other way to do this so easily and accurately.

For our salt we use Redmond’s Real Salt. We like all the minerals that are included in this real salt. It’s also not over-processed like most other salt is.

What's Next?

Check out some more healthy and tasty recipes. Make sure you know how to cook it first!

Or find out what all the buzz is about regarding quinoa nutrition.

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