Quinoa “Porridge”

I’m excited to blog this recipe as it’s one of my favourites and I make it at least every couple of months. The health benefits of quinoa are endless, probably why it’s had such a big boom in the last few years. It’s packed with fibre, protein and nutrients. Although this is called porridge it’s not really a breakfast recipe though I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner (or breakfast, dinner and tea as we call it in the north of England). The recipe is taken from Yotam Ottonlenghi’s ‘Plenty More’ which is a brilliant vegetarian cookbook. Ottonlenghi has a few restaurants in London and Nopi is located in one of my favourite parts of London – just off super cool Carnaby Street. It’s incredibly reasonably priced for the restaurant of a celebrity chef and though it is not a vegetarian restaurant, it’s an absolute mecca for vegetarians as this guy can really pack flavour into greens. As I write this I’m daydreaming about the chargrilled aubergine with yoghurt. In fact, I’ve just decided to buy the Nopi cookbook so I can blog about that one too …

Serves 2

Ingredients

130g quinoa

400ml vegetable stock

5g parsley

5g mint

50g feta

100g spinach

200g plum tomatoes

spray oil

salt

Method

1. Make up the 400ml vegetable stock
2. Put the quinoa in a pan and pour over the stock, put onto simmer for about 15 minutes
3. In the meantime, put the grill on and put the tomatoes on a tray to roast until they start to blacken. Spray them with oil and sprinkle with salt
4. While these are cooking, chop up the herbs and crumble up the feta
5. When the quinoa is cooked, add the spinach and let it wilt
6. Add in the feta and the tomatoes and stir through with a sprinkle of salt
7. Garnish with the herbs