Quinoa and Cheese

When I posted about my first experiences with quinoa last month, I asked all of you to share with me your favorite quinoa recipes. A number of you suggested trying quinoa and cheese.

Nora loves macaroni and cheese, so on her birthday last week, I decided to make quinoa and cheese for her birthday dinner. I googled around and found a recipe that seemed easy, still relatively healthy, and incorporated veggies, too.

This one also incorporates bread crumbs on top, which always add some nice flavor and texture to mac and cheese recipes, so it was a nice touch here. The thing with this recipe? The flavor is very mild. It was good, I’d eat it again, but still, I wasn’t overly impressed. And although Nora ate it on her birthday, she wanted nothing to do with the leftovers–so it’s hard to say what she really thought. :)

I want to try some other quinoa and cheese recipes, but if you are looking for a recipe to start with, you could give this one a try. I’ll continue the search for a really good one and keep you posted when I find it!

Quinoa and Cheese
(Source: Around the Table)

Ingredients:
– 1 & 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
– Veggies of your choice (optional)
– good pinch of salt
– a few grinds of seasoning salt
– 2 cloves garlic, minced
– 2 large eggs
– 1 cup soy milk or non-fat milk
– 1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, more for sprinkling
– Optional – Crushed Red Pepper, Panko Bread crumbs for topping
– Toppings (optional) – salsa, hot sauce, sour cream, scallions

Directions:
1. Lightly saute any veggies you would like in this dish.

2. Cook quinoa to package directions. (About 15 minutes.)

3. Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat 13×9 inch dish( or 8 individual ramekins) with cooking spray.Whisk together eggs and milk in large bowl. Fold in quinoa mixture and cheese. Stir very well and let some of the cheese melt. Transfer to prepared baking dish and if using Panko Crumbs or Bread crumbs add now and bake 30-35 mins, until bread crumbs are browned.