Red Quinoa Beef Stroganoff

Red Quinoa is an amazing grain. For those of you not familiar with it's amazing-ness yet, be sure to check out the meet whole foods post all about it. I had someone ask me the other day how it's pronounced because it's spelled so funny. She said she was confused and had been saying it "kin-NO-ah" or something. The real way to pronounce it is "KEEN-wah". So there you go; now you'll know how to read this post. :)

One of the things I love about the red quinoa is it's beautiful color. It's just the perfect color to add to dishes with ground beef. I usually adapt recipes that call for ground beef by cutting the meat in at least half and substituting about 1/2 cup of uncooked red quinoa, cooked for every pound of ground beef. I've found that my family still likes the beefy flavor so we do best when I substitute part of the meat in these kinds of dishes rather than omitting it entirely.

Here's one of our favorite dishes with red quinoa that we make a lot. I usually serve it over mashed potatoes. Actually in this picture I served it over a potato/turnip mash (I had just harvested a lot of turnips at the time...). Healthy and delicious.

Red Quinoa Beef Stroganoff

Printable Recipe

*Serves 6-8

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Cup red quinoa 

1-1/4 Cups water

6 Tbsp. butter

1 med. yellow onion

1 lb. ground beef

2 Cups beef broth

1 tsp. nutmeg

1-1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dried basil (or 1/8 Cup fresh basil, chopped)

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1 Cup milk

1/4 Cup flour 

1 Cup Sour Cream

Serve over cooked egg noodles, mashed or baked potatoes

DIRECTIONS:

In a small saucepan combine 1/2 cup red quinoa with 1-1/4 cups water. Bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer about 10-15 minutes or until quinoa is cooked and tender. A good way to tell if the quinoa is cooked is if it starts to produce a little white curlicue. That usually means the quinoa is tender enough. Quinoa can also be cooked in a pressure cooker using instructions found in this previous post.

While the quinoa is cooking, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and stir until soft. Add the ground beef and cook and stir until browned. Once the quinoa is cooked it can also be added to the skillet at this point (or later if it still needs a bit more time to cook). Add the broth, salt, nutmeg, basil, and pepper to the skillet. Bring to a boil and immediately decrease the heat to low. Simmer until all but 1/4 Cup liquid remains, about 30-40 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, you can cook this a little faster on medium heat, just watch it close and stir often. In a small bowl whisk together the milk and flour until mostly smooth. Then add to the skillet and whisk well until smooth. Then stir in the sour cream. Heat for another minute or two until mixture has thickened and heated through. Serve immediately over cooked egg noodles or mashed or baked potatoes. 

Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com