Vegetarian Quinoa Risotto

I love experimenting in the kitchen. I remember the first time I made quinoa in the original way was already quite an experiment. I didn’t rinse them well, so they tasted a bit hard. Luckily I’ve come a long way since then!

If you’ve never made quinoa before you could start with my quinoa superfood salad, but if you’re ready to take it to the next lever you can continue to read all about my quinoa risotto experiment.
When I normally make risotto I already healthify it by leaving out the white wine and the butter. Trust me you really don’t need it to create a tasty and ‘creamy’ risotto!
But with quinoa I’m taking it a step further! Quinoa is a good alternative to risotto rice as it has around the same calories but a much bigger amount of protein and iron. You can prepare it in practically the same way. I’m sharing the recipe for a vegan quinoa risotto with spinach and mushrooms with you. Not vegan? Than you can add some grated grana padano cheese right before serving.

Recipe Quinoa Risotto
Ingredients for two portions:
500 ml (2 cups) vegetable broth
250 grams mushrooms
200 grams fresh spinach
100 grams quinoa
1 onion
1 clove garlic
optional: grana padano

Heat a table spoon of olive oil in a skillet and shortly fry the onion and garlic. Add the quinoa and fry for one more minute. Turn the gas low and add a big dash of vegetable broth. Stir until the broth is dissolved. Repeat this until you’ve finished the broth, it’ll take around 15 minutes. In the meantime fry the mushrooms for about 5 minutes.
Add the mushrooms and spinach to the quinoa risotto and heat over low heat for another 5 minutes.
If you’re not eating vegan you can serve the quinoa with grated grana padano on top and/or stir some through your risotto.