Recently, at least for someone like me, Quinoa has been taking quite the attention on the food recipes column and I had been pretty darn curious to try it out. I’d be honest that I struggled to spell it right in the first place and simultaneously didn’t hesitate to give it a try after reading up how quick it was to prepare and all the good things it had to offer.

Quinoa is a nutritionally enriched, naturally gluten-free, plant-based cereal, having said to provide more benefits than in otherwise used grains like white bread, pasta or white rice. The most fascinating thing to me, being a fan of quick healthy meals, is that one can cook up Quinoa in almost 10 -15 minutes, season it with veggies or a stir-fry or even make it like a convenient to-go salad bowl. If you wish to read further on the tons of benefit Quinoa has been credited to offer, click here.

So now that my main ingredient was well sought, I thought of adding something more to it to blend with the neutral taste of the quinoa. I tried adding some spices, black beans, corn, jalapenos, and bell peppers to pop up the taste and made myself pretty proud. 😀

And to that, here is the ingredient list:

• 1 1/2 cups of quinoa + 3 cups of water/ water + veggie stock
• 1 red bell pepper chopped
• 1 green bell pepper chopped
• Remove the seeds of 1 jalapeno and roughly chop into small pieces
• 1/2 cup of sweet corn
• 1/2 cup of boiled and strained black beans
• 2tsp of cumin seeds
• 1/2 a lime
• some chopped cilantro
• and 1/4 cup of vegan mozzarella cheese or any of your choice for that matter. 🙂

To Prepare:

1. In a small pot, bring the water/ water+ veggie stock to boil and add the quinoa to it. Cover and reduce to a medium-low simmer and cook until tender for approx 15 minutes.
2. Wash, clean and dice all the veggies, chop the cilantro and drain the black beans.
3. In a pan, heat some oil, add the cumin seeds, corn, and the jalapeno and cook over medium-high heat. Cook until lightly brown and then toss in the drained black beans and let it cook by taking in all the flavors.
4. Season with salt and pepper and take it off the heat.
5. On the other hand, fluff the quinoa with a fork. In a large serving bowl, toss the quinoa, the mixture of the corn, bell peppers, and the jalapeno.
6. Sprinkle with the chopped cilantro, lime juice, and some vegan cheese while still hot. You can also add any nuts of your choice to add some crunch to this bowl.

The next thing to do is DIG IN! 🙂