Mushroom Quinoa Risotto

I'm back from India and I'll be blogging about it over on my travel blog, if you're interested.

I'm not the biggest fan of quinoa. I find it too fine of a grain and it gets stuck all in my teeth and the texture isn't the most appealing to me. However, whilst in Lisbon last October, we went to this delicious restaurant called A Cevicheria and had what they called "quinoto," which was quinoa risotto. It was so creamy and decadent and delicious, I decided that it was the only way I was going to be eating quinoa ever again.

Since we had some quinoa in the pantry already, a few days after our return, I gave it a go. It wasn't the prettiest looking dish, but it was really tasty and comforting and because of that, I thought it was worth sharing.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons + 1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 oz. mushrooms, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
4 cups chicken stock, room temperature
½ cup cream
¼ cup grated parmesan

Start by chopping the mushrooms and finely mincing garlic.

In a pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with olive oil over medium heat and add in the mushrooms and garlic and cook until the mushrooms are soft and the garlic is fragrant. Season generously with salt and pepper.

Add rinsed quinoa to the pan and stir to coat the gains in the butter and oil. Top off with about 1 cup of chicken stock. Gently stir to evenly distribute the ingredients and reduce heat to low.

The rest of the cooking process is quite similar to cooking any sort of risotto. As the quinoa absorbs the stock, continue adding more liquid about ½ cup at a time, stirring occasionally.

After the final addition of stock is absorbed, add in a pat of butter, the grated cheese and give it a good stir before adding in just a touch of cream. Serve immediately.

Like I said, this isn't necessarily the prettiest dish. I had a hard time photographing this as it resembles something not-so-nice. However, it's creamy and dreamy and delicious and perfect as a side dish or on its own. I served the risotto with some Tunisian harissa chicken and pile of roasted vegetables and it was a great winter dinner.

Here's the recipe page: