Today I had some veggies that I needed to use, and I decided to invent a recipe. It turned out pretty delicious, so I wanted to remember it! I figured that I'd type out the recipe here so that it would be easy to refer back to when I want to make this again in the future. I'm not a pro cook or anything. I just enjoy cooking and eating good food.
Ingredients
Quinoa
Half of a medium butternut squash
Bell pepper (Any color should be fine; mine was both red and green, and I got it from the farmer's market)
Anaheim pepper
Half an onion
2-3 small roma tomatoes
Coconut oil
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Garlic Salt
Oregano
Water
Instructions
- Cut up the butternut squash into approximately 1-inch cubes. I wasn't super precise with the size and shape, but I didn't want them too small or too big. Kind of bite size was what I was going for.
- Dice the onion. I wanted the flavor of the onion more than the texture, so I diced.
- Dice half of the anaheim pepper.
- Cut the bell pepper into slightly larger pieces. I feel like these ended up being about the same length and width as the squash, just not the same depth since peppers are obviously not that big.
- Put coconut oil into a large frying pan. I think I maybe put in about a tablespoon, but I'm really not sure.
- Start cooking the quinoa in a separate saucepan according to the instructions. I used the suggestion on the bag of how much to make, which was 2 serving sizes, or 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup of water.
- Add the onion, peppers, and squash to the frying pan and start sauteeing over medium-high heat.
- Add some salt, pepper, garlic salt, and cumin as desired. (I have no clue how much I used.)
- While everything is cooking, take a minute to cut the tomatoes and mix and crush them with a little bit of water in a bowl.
- Add a little bit of oregano to the bowl with the tomatoes. (Is it weird to have oregano with cumin? The oregano flavor didn't stand out too much, but I liked having it in there. Other spices could easily be used instead though.)
- Once the quinoa is almost done, turn off the heat.
- Add the tomato mixture to the frying pan and turn down the heat.
- After a minute, stir in the quinoa.
- Add spices as desired.
- Cook until you think things are good! And voila! Mexican quinoa! It reminded me of Mexican rice, but I'm not actually a big fan of Mexican rice, but I liked this a lot. I feel like you could easily substitute whatever you want into this--add more veggies, use different spices, etc.
Like I said, I'm not a pro cook, and I'm just typing this out for my own benefit for future reference. But if anyone makes this, and it turns out terribly or wonderfully, let me know!
