Day 3: Quick and Healthy Weeknight Dinner – Garlic Shrimp and Vegetable Quinoa

I could never diet, neither could I understand the reasoning behind it. If I don’t eat a proper meal, my brain and body refuse to function. Proper meal to me is synonymous to a “balanced, nutritious and delicious” meal.

While cooking this, I was thinking about beach and bikinis, lazy days with sunshine and clear water, iced tea, and a cool breeze… So let us get going and put our healthy pants on. 🙂

Quinoa is a protein packed grain, full of amino-acids, basically full of all kinda goodness that our bodies love, needless to say it is the trendiest among all the grains. Veggie quinoa is a delicious combination of flavors from various vegetables (that you need to use up before they go bad). Consider this recipe’s ingredients as more of a suggestion, I added all the veggies and beans that I could find in the refrigerator!! I loved the combination of green olives, sugar snap peas, spinach and some red kidney beans. The veggies compliment the earthy/nutty flavors of the quinoa perfectly.

Shrimps stir fired with garlic and paprika are a perfect accompaniment for the incredibly tasting veggie quinoa. The shrimps are equally amazing over a simple green salad or brown rice. The complete dish is ready in less than 30 minutes… for real!!

The recipe below makes enough for dinner for 2 people.

Ingredients
For Quinoa:
1/2 Cup Quinoa, rinsed
1/4 Cup Onion, chopped
1 Clove Garlic, chopped
1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1.5 Cup Vegetables (I added sugar snap peas, spinach, tomato, carrots, peas and green olives)
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Cumin Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Red Chili Powder/ Cayenne Pepper
1/4 Cup Kidney Beans (organic), drained and rinsed (you can also use chickpea or black beans) – Optional
For Shrimp:
1/2 Pound Large Shrimp, approx 8 Shrimps
2-3 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Paprika
¼ Cup Fresh Cilantro, finely chopped
3 Scallions, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Process
Quinoa:

1. Heat oil in a pan, cook onions on medium heat for 2-3 minutes until they become translucent.
2. Stir in salt and garlic and cook for another minute.
3. Add rinsed quinoa and stir for 2 minutes.
4. Add all the vegetables, kidney beans and cayenne pepper/ red chili powder. Give everything a good stir.
5. Add 1 Cup water and bring the mixture in the pan to boil.
6. Cover the pan and cook quinoa on med-low heat for 15-20 minutes until all the water has been absorbed.
7. Let the quinoa rest, covered, for 5-10 minutes and fluff with a fork.

Shrimp

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet, add garlic and paprika.
2. Add shrimp and cook on medium heat, for approximately 3 minutes on each side or until they are opaque.
3. Sprinkle salt and pepper, mix everything together.
4. Take the shrimp out on a serving plate and you can discard the garlic if you don’t like too much garlic flavor.
5. Garnish with chopped cilantro and scallions.

Enjoy!