Quinoa, Avocados, and Egg Whites Are All You Need

Got another easy quinoa dish for you guys! This one takes twenty minutes max, and all you need is:

• Roughly a cup of quinoa (white, red, mixed–whatever!)
• An avocado (half an avocado will also do)
• Egg whites
• And, of course, salt and pepper to taste

Each of these ingredients should be prepared separately. Any mixing that occurs will happen way later, in your mouth and stomach.

First boil a cup of quinoa in a saucepan filled three-quarters of the way with water. A whole cup of quinoa might be a little excessive if you’re only cooking for yourself, but it doesn’t hurt to have some extra quinoa lying around for those lazy days where even boiling water seems far too strenuous.

As the quinoa cooks, split open an avocado and mash it into a guac-like consistency, seasoning to taste with black pepper, lemon or lime juice, and salt (though we recommend substituting salt with Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning, which you can buy here).

Keep an eye on the quinoa, stirring every two minutes or so because that is the responsible, chef-like thing to do. Quinoa generally takes about 15 minutes to cook, so when you hit that 13 minute mark, turn down the heat and pull out a skillet to make an egg white omelette.

After turning the stove to medium-high heat, drizzle a line of oil on the skillet, then after about a minute, drop the egg white onto the pan. (Presumably, you’ll have separated the yolk from the egg whites beforehand.) Let it sit for about thirty seconds, sprinkling salt and pepper on it as it cooks. Poke at the edges of the omelette to keep it from sticking, then after about a minute, flip the omelette over for about ten seconds. And voila! Egg white omelette!

Scoot the omelette from the skillet to the plate with the avocado mash, then (after draining the quinoa) also scoop a generous helping of grain onto the plate. Sprinkle a little black pepper over the whole dish, then sit down, put on an episode of The Mindy Project, and enjoy!

BTW, fun fact about avocados: they are also identified by some as “alligator pears.”

Banana Cinnamon Quinoa

I mean, quinoa for breakfast

When the nutritional superstar of our decade and the most important meal of the day get together, there’s no telling what could happen. Maybe you’ll finally be able to combat those awful morning headaches, or have enough energy to do that morning run you’ve been meaning to go on.

Quinoa is one of the most protein-rich foods we can eat, containing all nine essential amino acids, and has about twice as much fiber as other grains. Since it’s more so used in lunch and dinner dishes, we were ecstatic to find a breakfast recipe that featured both this supergrain and our ingredient of the week: bananas.

Initially, we planned on making two servings of Chocolate Banana Breakfast Quinoa (click here for that recipe). But we forgot to pick up cocoa powder while we were out shopping for groceries—a minor slip up on our part that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Rather than go back to the store to buy what we had forgotten, we decided to make the recipe our own, aka alter it to fit what we had in our pantry (namely, cinnamon, honey, and a bag of walnuts).

Here’s what we ended up using:

• ½ cup raw quinoa
• 1 cup almond milk
• ½ cup water
• Dash of sea salt
• 1 banana ( ½ mashed, ½ cut up in slices)
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup of walnuts
• Butter
• ½ teaspoon brown sugar

And here’s what we did, in numerical order for your convenience!

1. Bring ½ cup of quinoa, ½ cup of water, 1 cup of almond milk, and dash of sea salt to a boil in a small pot.
2. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally. (Usually recipes say to cook the quinoa until all the liquid is absorbed. That’s nearly impossible with this recipe, given the ratio between the amount of liquid you’re using and the amount of quinoa you’re boiling. We recommend cooking the quinoa for a solid 10 minutes, then turning off the stove.)
3. While the quinoa is cooking, toast the walnuts in a separate pan. Turn the stove on to low heat and melt a small bit of butter on the pan. Pour the walnuts into the stove. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon of brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon on top of walnuts. Remove walnuts and transfer to a bowl after 4-5 minutes.
4. Remove quinoa from stove and transfer to a bowl.
5. Mix in the mashed banana, cinnamon, vanilla, and honey. Stir until evenly combined.
6. Garnish quinoa with banana slices (and mint, if you’re feeling fancy). If the quinoa is too dry, mix in some almond milk.
7. Enjoy!

Prep time: 5 minutes | Cook time: 10 minutes | Serving: 2