Ingredients

• 1 cup dried quinoa

• 2 cups water/broth (for quinoa)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

• 1 large yellow bell pepper (diced)

• 2 cups sliced mushrooms

• Salt and ground pepper

• 1 teaspoon dried parsley

• 1 teaspoon 'Greek' Seasoning

  • crushed mint
  • splash of lemon juice
  • basil
  • oregano

• 1 onion's inner most layers (sliced) [recipe called for scallions I improvised!]

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons olive oil (additional)

• Optional:

  • Toasted pine nuts, to garnish

Instructions

1. Prepare quinoa with water or broth.
2. A heat olive oil in a fry pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, bell pepper; and stir over medium heat until slightly softened.
3. Add the mushrooms. Start seasoning with the salt, and ground pepper, to your liking and parsley.
4. In a separate bowl, add the 'Greek' seasoning ingredients that come to roughly 1 teaspoon combined. Stir and cook until the mushrooms are tender.
5. Pour contents in the frypan into the pot with cooked quinoa.
6. Add the onions. Stir to combine.
7. Add in lemon juice and olive oil and toss.

Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts, if desired.

Inspiration

I did not follow this recipe to a complete T, I had to make some adjustments since I did not have all of the ingredients on hand.

Closing

This was a really zesty dish that tasted REALLY good. I had to improvise quite a bit to get this recipe to fruition. Ideally, I would have had different types of bell peppers, and have scallions but the inner most layer of an onion worked alright, too.

Also, it called for a lemon, but I had lemon juice so I worked with that. The original recipe also called for this 'Greek' seasoning which can be pretty easily duplicated by hand. I think I had more quinoa in this preparation, but I was happy with it.

Oh, and be careful about toasting the pine nuts if you add them, it does not take long! My second batch of pine nuts were less cooked. :)

Have fun!