Quinoa Paella

In my pursuit of trying quinoa in my usual rice dishes, tonight I tried paella.  I’ve been meaning to try one with shrimp instead of our usual sausage, so tonight I did.  The end result was flavorful and filling.  It came out at 3 servings at 386 calories and 5.9 calories per serving.

Now…there was a picture.  Several, in fact.  And when I prepped one of my other posts and was pulling images off the memory card, I thought I had already pulled these and prepped them (because this was hanging out in the queue)…and so deleted the original images.  Except I hadn’t actually prepped the picture yet, so you have no pretty.  But take my word for it that it looks like…well, paella.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp dried minced onion
• 1/4 cup diced red peppers
• 1/2 cup diced zucchini
• 1/3 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup peas and carrots
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 12 oz. shelled shrimp

Directions:

1. Add a little bit of the stock to a large skillet.
2. Add the onion and garlic and simmer over medium heat until softened.
3. Rinse the quinoa.  Even if it says pre-rinsed, just do it.  Quinoa naturally produces some stuff that acts as a…well I forget what, but a lot of people are allergic, so it’s better to rinse extra.
4. Add the quinoa to the skillet with the saffron, cayenne, and paprika.  Stir well.
5. Add all but 1/4 cup of the chicken stock.  Bring to a simmer and cover.
6. Cook for 10 minutes.
7. Add the shrimp and vegetables.  Recover.
8. Cook for another 15 minutes, checking at 5 to add the last of the stock.
9. Stir well and serve.

Printable version.