Brown Rice & Quinoa with Veggies
This “recipe” happened in attempt to use up leftover brown rice and quinoa in a healthy one-pan entree. (Note: you need a pretty big pan). The picture we snapped doesn’t really do the dish justice; it looks a bit monochromatic and bland here. But, in reality, it was delicious and hearty and colorful on our plates. And it heated up really nicely the next day.
We called this Brown Rice & Quinoa with Veggies #1 because there are too many veggies to list in the title, and we expect we’ll add additional brown rice + quinoa + veggie combos as the seasons change. So, we figured we’d just identify our combos with numbers until/unless we came up with a better system!
These amounts will yield enough for 3-4 entree-sized servings (or probably about 6-8 side dish servings). We think you could easily half this recipe if you live alone or only want a few side dishes.
We ate this dish as an entree and served it with a side salad. The meal was light, yet very filling. In retrospect, we think it would’ve been good (and even higher in protein) with some beans – maybe black beans or navy beans. (If you opt to add beans – we suggest you drain them well. We’d probably toss them in at Step 3 – with the peppers and mushrooms).
- 3 cups cooked brown rice and/or quinoa (we used 2c brown rice + 1c quinoa because that's what we had)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 sweet pepper, chopped (we used an orange one, but yellow or red would work just as well)
- 2 bags (approx 1/2 lb) mushrooms, chopped (we used silver oyster mushrooms from 5th Kingdom)
- 1 bunch Tucker Farms swiss chard (stems removed, sliced into ribbons)
- 1 bunch Tucker Farms red russian kale (stems removed, sliced into ribbons)
- 1 handful dried cranberries (or any other dried fruit - we think raisins or dried cherries would be yummy as well)
- 1 handful chopped and toasted walnuts (or pecans or almonds ... whatever you have on hand)
- salt, red pepper, and cumin to taste
- a few tablespoons of EVOO
- If you don't have leftover brown rice and/or quinoa, go ahead and get that cooking on your back burner. You can use a mixture of the two or one or the other - whatever works for you. Cook per the package directions. (Note: you could probably also substitute 3 cups of couscous or a small pasta, like orzo, for the brown rice and/or quinoa).
- Cook the garlic and onions in pan - on medium heat - with EVOO until caramelized. This may take a good 10-15 minutes.
- Turn up the heat and add chopped pepper and mushrooms to the garlic and onion mixture. Cook - stirring frequently - about 3-5 minutes until the peppers and mushrooms start to brown lightly around the edges.
- Add the brown rice and/or quinoa and the kale and swiss chard ribbons. Add the cranberries, a few pinches of salt and a few shakes each of red pepper flakes and roasted cumin. Stir frequently until the kale and chard begin to wilt and the rice and/or quinoa are heated through.
- Taste - add more seasoning as needed.
- Top with toasted walnuts. (We also topped with a few ribbons of fresh basil because we had it on hand; the basil was a nice addition, but we don't think it's a critical ingredient).
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