This is a recipe for Kitchen Therapy’s collaboration with Organic Farmer’s Co., using their organic quinoa grains. The Buddha bowl is one of the latest trends of the years that has taken the food world by a storm. The concept colourful one-bowl-meal consists of healthy grains, vegetables, and protein. It’s pretty much the same simple concept that we use on our Indian thali, but sort of updated and revised with a clean eating angle.
How to cook quinoa:
I’ve taken some time to get adjusted to cooking this gorgeous grain, which is filled with far too much goodness, it’s almost unbelievable. I know it took me a while to acquire the taste for it, but I figured out a few neat ways to spice up the flavour and make it oh-so-delicious.
Now, the first step for starting the quinoa is to rinse it more than a couple of times, preferably 4 times. Quinoa is coated with a slight wax that lends to a bitter taste if it’s not washed off.
Soak the grains in warm water for at least 3 or 4 hours. Do this overnight if you don’t have all that time and patience in the morning.
Then bring a pot of water with the ratio of: 1:2 quinoa to water to boil with the quinoa. This point is where you can add a good amount of seasoning (I am shameless and add 1½ tsp of Kitchen King Masala) and let the water absorb completely. This should take a total of 20 minutes. Then with a fork, gently fluff the quinoa and turn off the heat.
The quinoa can be stored in the fridge for upto a week.
Serving size: 60g of uncooked quinoa per person (roughly 1/8 cup)
Photo Credits: Krishna Lalbhai
The Recipe
Serves 1
Ingredients
- 60g quinoa, uncooked
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp Kitchen King masala
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp oil
- 5 cubes paneer
- 8-10 green beans, steamed
- 1/2 carrot, grated
- 6-7 cashews
- 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup almonds, soaked
- 7-8 cashews
- 1 tsp oil
- 2 medium slices ginger
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 green chilli
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp Kitchen King masala
- 1/2 tsp salt
- roasted papad
- yogurt with cumin powder and red chilli powder
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa. Place double the amount of water and the quinoa in a pot to boil. Add the Kitchen King Masala, salt and minced garlic. Let the water come to boil and then lower the heat to cook until all the water absorbs itself into the grains. Turn off the heat and cover with a lid for another 10 minutes or so. Remove the lid and stir to fluff with a fork.
- In a separate pan, prepare the sauce. Sauté the ginger, garlic, chilli in a tsp of oil. Add in the rest of the spices and sauté for about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
- Put this spice mix with almonds and cashews into a blender and crush to make a sauce. Add a few spoons of water if necessary to smoothen out.
- With a silicon brush, spread some oil in the same pan. Turn the flame on high and grill the paneer with a slight sprinkle of salt on one side of the pan. Once done, remove from the pan.
- To assemble, fill your bowl with the quinoa. Then arrange all the toppings on top, followed by the sauce.
- Serve with papad and some yogurt.
