This recipe is a twist on the traditional South Indian coconut rice I have come to love. It’s also fairly recently that I’ve discovered mint goes very well with rice. In my quest for eating healthy everyday of the week, I came up with Coconut-Mint Quinoa! On impulse I decided to throw some mint leaves in while cooking. The crunchiness of the lentils, the softness of the coconut and nutty quinoa go very well together. The prep time is just 10 minutes (excluding quinoa cooking time). So you can go about doing your thing while the qunioa cooks by itself and then finish it up by seasoning real quick. Easy, healthy, post-work-too-tired-to-cook-dinner. Did I mention I love crunchy fried lentils in the tadka (tempering)? Oh yes I do!
Coconut-Mint Quinoa
The proportions are for 1 cup and can easily be doubled or tripled
Ingredients:
- Quinoa - 1 cup, washed thrice using a strainer
- Water - 2 cups, for cooking the quinoa
- Oil - 2 tsp
- Channa dal - 1 1/2 tsp
- Urad dal - 1 1/2 tsp, split
- Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
- Green chilly - 2, slit and chopped very fine
- Dry Red Chilly - 1, broken into pieces
- Cumin - 1 tsp
- Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
- Curry Leaves - 4
- Mint - 1/4 cup, leaves
- Cilantro - 1/4 cup, loosely packed, chopped
- Grated coconut - 1/2 cup, fresh
- Salt - to taste
Instructions:
- Cook the quinoa in water till tender and done. The proportion is the same as rice - 1:2.
- Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add the bengal gram dal. Let it fry for a minute until light brown.
- Add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, asafoetida, broken red chillies, curry leaves, green chillies and mint. Fry for a minute until the leaves are soft and cooked. Add the chopped cilantro and salt.
- Add the coconut and stir fry for a minute but not until browned. It should still look white. Turn off the heat and add this mixture to the Quinoa and mix well.
- EAT!
