A few days ago we flew out of Seoul and landed in Beijing, China. And what a new world it is. Bustling city full of people, new language, enormous sights and vast history – so much to absorb, with not enough time to reflect. As always with a new country comes new food and exotic regional delicacies. For the last few days we’ve had hot and sour tofu soup for breakfast, meat and veggies stir fry dishes coated with sauce for lunch, and we polished off the day today with the famous peking duck for dinner. The food has been delicious but a little greasy at times, to say the least. And far from vegan, let alone vegetarian friendly. Even if the dish itself does not seem to contain meat I wouldn’t be surprised if some pork fat was thrown into the mix somewhere…
And so today I share an uber healthy, vegan and gluten free, recipe. Please make this so I can live vicariously through your healthy yet delicious eating habits as I gobble down on some unhealthy (albeit drool worthy) Chinese food.
Oh Quinoa, where art thou in Asia?
It seems to be nowhere in sight so far, but I will definitely keep a look out!
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1¼ cup vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
- 1.5 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 lemon, juiced, divided
- 2 zucchini, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
- 1 pound asparagus, woody ends discarded, remainder cut in half
- ¼ cup walnuts, chopped
- 1 scallion, chopped
- Heat ½ tablespoon vegetable oil in a pot. Add quinoa and toast over medium heat 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt to taste. Add vegetable broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered 15-20 minutes or until cook through.
- In a pan heat remaining vegetable oil and add zucchini. Cook 3-5 minutes tossing occasionally and add asparagus. Cook 3-4 minutes or until slightly soft but still crisp.Add garlic and cook 1 minute.
- In a separate bowl combine mustard, balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice. Mix until smooth.
- Add quinoa to pan with veggies along with dressing and walnuts. Mix until smooth.
- Serve warm.
Welcome to Avocado Pesto! Long time foodie and travel enthusiast, I started this blog to share my curious culinary efforts and kitchen endeavors. Here you'll find a smorgasbord of ethnic cuisines and hopefully a few humorous tales too.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I bet you’re just having a great time in China! This dish sounds delicious, but so do all the meals you’ve been eating out there too =)
Peggy recently posted..Salmon Croquette Burger
Une assiette bine exécutée, pleine de bonnes choses
Bonne journée
Valérie.
When I was living in Seoul, I would buy my quinoa (and lots of other awesome foods, teas, and spices) on iherb.com. They’re relatively cheap (compared to the prices in the foreign food section of the grocery store) and I would usually get my shipment in about a week.
Thanks for the recipe! I’m gonna try it out tonight!
Hope you enjoy it! That website sounds like a great alternative to overprices foreign goods in grocery stores! If only we were in one place long enough to have something shipped to us!
Found this on Pinterest and made it for dinner last night, my husband loved it! In fact, he licked the bowl and asked for more
Thanks for the super simple and tasty recipe!
This recipe looks soo good but when I tried it it turned out so bad. Maybe UK measurements are different but mine was swimming in the lemon/garlic/vinegar. Looked nothing like yours in the picture. I double checked the measurements and everything. The comment above said hers turned out fine !! Not sure what went wrong, so annoyed as it looks so good !!
Oh no Alex, I’m so so sorry the recipe didn’t turn out well! Was there a lot of water coming out of the zucchini? That could have been one factor that made the whole mix more liquidy. Or you might have been using a big juicy lemon (as opposed to mine which may have been smaller and not so juicy)? Was the quinoa completely dry when you added it to the veggies or was there still some water there that had not boiled off? I’m not sure what could have gone grown other than those few factors that come to mind! Once again I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out for you! I would try making this again myself to test out the measurements, but since I am currently backpacking through South East Asia I have neither the kitchen nor the quinoa (have not seen it here yet) to make it work : //