Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables

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My Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables is a delicious and colorful gluten-free dish featuring quinoa, a nutritional powerhouse. I toss quinoa with sweet, caramelized roasted vegetables and a light balsamic vinaigrette. It's a simple and elegant vegetarian entrée or side dish or can even be topped with grilled chicken or fish, if desired.

Thank you Bob's Red Mill for sponsoring this post!

One of the first posts that I ever put up on The Foodie Physician blog was an “Ingredient 911” post about quinoa. I was a culinary student at the time and quinoa was a hot new ingredient that was all the rage in the culinary world.

I was so fascinated with quinoa that I even used it in my recipe just a few months earlier when I competed at the National Beef Cook-Off in Sonoma, California. My dish was “Pomegranate Steak with Quinoa.”

I distinctly recall the interviewers at the cook-off asking me more questions about the quinoa than the beef because they had never heard of it. Quinoa has certainly come a long way since then!

Quinoa is Versatile

As a doctor and a chef, quinoa is one of my favorite ingredients to work because it not only has a stellar nutritional profile, it also has amazing culinary versatility. You can use quinoa in a wide variety of dishes, both savory and sweet.

Some of my favorites are my Black Bean and Quinoa Veggie Burgers, Quinoa Salad with Spinach, Strawberries and Goat Cheese and Quinoa Fried "Rice" with Tuna.

Quinoa is the perfect ingredient to incorporate into your diet if you’re looking to make smarter food choices and lead a healthier lifestyle.

Quinoa Is a Superfood

Although quinoa is technically a seed, it is classified as a whole grain. To learn more about the nutritional benefits of whole grains, read my post Everything You Need to Know About Whole Grains.

One cup of cooked quinoa provides about 8 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber.

Quinoa is a superfood for many reasons:

It's packed with essential vitamins and minerals including folate, iron, zinc, and magnesium.
It's high in fiber. Fiber helps keep you feeling full and is important for digestive health. It also has numerous other health benefits including lowering cholesterol levels and helping to stabilize blood sugar.
It contains phytonutrients (plant-based compounds) that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
Quinoa is also gluten-free and easy to digest.
It's a good source of protein and is one of the few vegetarian foods that’s a complete protein. That means it contains all of the essential amino acids. This makes quinoa an excellent option for anyone following a plant-based diet.
It contains small amounts of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), a heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acid.

Quinoa has a wide range of colors but only three main varieties are cultivated- white, red, and black. I like to buy Bobs' Red Mill tricolor quinoa, which is a mixture of the three. It adds a lot of beautiful color to my dishes.

When it's cooked, quinoa has a nice nutty flavor and fluffy texture with a slight crunch. In addition, Bob's Red Mill quinoa is pre-rinsed to remove any naturally occurring bitter saponins.

Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables- start the year off right with this nutritious quinoa dish that's packed with color and flavor. | @foodiephysician

Quinoa is Easy to Make

Do you ever feel rushed to get a nutritious meal on the table in the evening? The good news is that quinoa is also really easy to prepare. It only takes 15 minutes to cook! You can even cook it in a rice cooker if you have one. One of my tips is that I like to cook quinoa in chicken or vegetable stock because it infuses it with great flavor.

If you haven’t cooked with quinoa a lot, a good place to start would be to substitute it into any recipe that calls for rice or couscous.

Here are some ideas for how to use quinoa in recipes:

Use it in pilafs or salads
Add it to soups and stews or chili
Use it in homemade veggie burgers
Use it as a filling to stuff vegetables like bell peppers or acorn squash
Enjoy it for breakfast in place of oatmeal
Use it in a dessert like rice pudding

Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables

One of my favorite ways to prepare quinoa is my Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables. Roasting vegetables at a high temperature caramelizes their sugars and brings out their natural sweetness. As the vegetables roast, they brown on the outside, become buttery soft on the inside and their flavors intensify.

Whenever I’m trying to get more veggies into my diet, I make several large trays of my Perfect Oven-Roasted Vegetables and store them in the fridge to snack on during the week.

overhead quinoa with roasted vegetables in a pan.

How to make Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables

For my Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables, I roast some of my favorite vegetables like colorful carrots, zucchini, red onion, and bell peppers along with whole cloves of garlic until they become soft and sweet.

Then I toss them with quinoa that I've cooked in vegetable stock. I love the extra color that you get from this mix of white, red, and black quinoa.

For a final pop of flavor, I tossed everything with a simple dressing made with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard.

Not sure what the difference is between balsamic vinegar vs balsamic glaze vs vinaigrette? Read my post to learn more!

Bright, boldly flavored, and beautiful to look at plus it's super nutritious to boot! This dish makes an excellent vegetarian entrée or side dish or can even be topped with grilled chicken or fish, if desired.

Recipe FAQs and Chef's Tips

Why is quinoa bitter?

The seeds of the quinoa plant have a bitter coating from compounds called saponins. The best way to remove it is to rinse or soak the quinoa prior to cooking. However, most of the commercially sold quinoa in the U.S. is pre-rinsed to remove this bitterness.

How can I make quinoa taste better?

Quinoa has a mild, nutty flavor. It takes on different flavors depending on how it's cooked and what it’s mixed with. I like to cook my quinoa in vegetable or chicken stock rather than water to infuse it with flavor. You can also add additional seasonings to quinoa as it's cooking such as garlic or dried spices. I also like to toss cooked quinoa with dressings and sauces while it's still warm to absorb maximum flavor.

Is quinoa gluten free?

Yes, quinoa is gluten free and is easy to digest. It's a nutritionally dense whole grain that's high in protein, fiber, and antioxidants and is a good option for those following a gluten-free diet.