Quinoa with Roasted Garlic, Tomatoes, and Spinach

Jessie has some quinoa in her panty and doesn't know what to do with it... So I decided to research a few quinoa recipes for her. I found one that interested me enough to try for dinner tonight. You can find the original recipe here, but I decided to modify it a bit. Mainly, I adjusted the roasted garlic part... Jessie told me to roast the garlic at 375 degrees for 25 minutes... Next time I should probably go for 30-35 minutes, but I'll play with that part of the recipe later...

Most of the ingredients... The garlic was in the oven and the quinoa was rinsed by the time I took this picture...

I rinsed the quinoa, also as per directions (it keeps it from getting bitter). Note: either use a SUPER-FINE mesh strainer or use a bowl and your hand to drain the quinoa... the mesh strainer I used had holes bigger than the grain, so a bit went down the sink...

Rinsed quinoa....

As the garlic was finishing, I sauteed the shallots and crushed red pepper. I didn't measure the shallots out, I just used the smaller part of the bulb.... I also didn't measure the crushed red pepper, just eyeballed it... Added the quinoa, as per the directions and then splashed it with some white wine (probably more than the recipe called for but, meh....)

Quinoa, shallot, & red pepper flake mix... after wine...

After the addition of the chicken broth....

Of course, when cooking with wine, it is customary to pour yourself a glass, or two (or three, I won't judge)...

Wine... yummy... I had to have an extra glass since Jessie cannot (preggers)

While the quinoa was cooking as per directions, I took the garlic out of the oven and let it sit for a bit....

Roasted Garlic

Another departure from the recipe - it calls for a chopped, seeded, small tomato... I chose to use grape tomatoes cut in half and NOT seeded... but that was purely my choice...

Halved Grape Tomatoes

When the quinoa was cooked, I added the tomatoes, spinach, and parmesan cheese and mixed it all together...

Mix it all together...

Note: you should probably taste the combination after you add the parmesan and before you add extra salt... I used "full-strength" chicken broth (and not the reduced sodium type) for the recipe... The parmesan is a bit salty on its own and the addition of salt after the parmesan was added was a bit too much for me... Still edible (and tasty), but not as amazing as it could have been...

If you are making this for a side, it makes 4 servings... If you are making it as a main dish (as I was), it makes two...

I will definitely make this recipe again, as it is light enough for the times when I don't want to eat a heavy dinner, and it has a lot of nutritional value... Apparently, quinoa is high in protein, so it is good for "meatless" nights... It is also awesome for any garlic lover... It is awesomely garlicky!