Quinoa fried rice
I was recently reading “Cooking is Fun … Really!!” and the blogger (whose real name I don’t know) posted about quinoa fried ‘rice’.
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When I write that I do not know her name, to be fair, the blogger signs off as “A Boleyn” and I know people call her Anne after Anne Boleyn who for the Queen of England from 1533 to 1536.
I know that A. Boleyn uses another pseudonym on Facebook but I’m not about to make all the connections here given she tries to remain private.
Anyway, the blogger, last week shared how she used quinoa instead of rice to make fried ‘rice’ with Chinese sausage, or Lup cheong.
Even though I’ve recently written about fried cauliflower ‘rice’, I thought I’d try this quinoa version. While quinoa is not exactly low carb, it is highish in protein and I do like the nutty taste of quinoa. Since I’ve lost seven kilograms, I figure, one bowl of quinoa isn’t going to set me back at all.
I thought it would also be nice to add some scallops and prawns (or shrimp of you’re from North America). That said, I did toss up in my mind adding some Spam.
I bought everything from Coles.
Recipe
Quinoa is sort of like rice and so it can be fried like traditional fried rice. The addition of some scallops and prawns makes it a little exotic 😃 I think you'll like this recipe.
- 1/2 cup white quinoa
- 100 grams raw scallops
- 100 grams of raw prawns
- Frozen peas and corn
- Soy sauce
- Avocado oil
- Crushed ginger
- White onion
- Spring onions
- Sesame oil
- Chilli flakes
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Prepare everything in advance.
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Slice some onion.
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Slice some spring onions.
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Put a handful of frozen peas and corn in a bowl.
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Put the raw prawns and scallops on a plate.
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Cook half a cup of white quinoa with a cup of water using microwave radiation on high power for 10 minutes and allow the cooked quinoa to rest for 5 minutes.
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Get a frying pan nice and hot and add some avocado oil and sesame oil.
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Sauté the onions and spring onions.
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When the onion becomes translucent add the chilli flakes and some crushed ginger and the peas and corn.
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Cook until the ginger is well mixed into everything and the peas and corn have thawed.
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Add the prawns and scallops and cook until the prawns begin to turn colour and the scallops start to become opaque.
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Add in the cooked quinoa and stir everything together along with a good slug of soy sauce.
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Turn off the heat and add some fried shallots.
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Serve into a bowl.
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Shoot a photograph and then eat the meal while having a conversation on Twitter and watching House, MD on Amazon Video.
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Wash the dishes.
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Write the recipe.
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Write the blog post and hope my friends share this recipe and the blog post on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Disclaimer
I have no culinary training nor qualifications.
This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner.
The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste.
I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
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Questions and answers
How long has it been since you ate quinoa?
It’s been quite some time. You could search for “Yummy Lummy” quinoa in a search engine like Google.
Is it really fried rice without Chinese sausage?
Nope, real fried rice has Chinese sausage.
How is the weight loss going?
I’ve hit a plateau. I may need to go hard again and avoid all forms of carbs.
The good news is I can fit into my old clothes again. I can even wear jumpers that wouldn’t fit me last year.
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Final thoughts
Have you ever tried substituting rice with quinoa?
Catch you next week.
I hope you know you get a virtual ‘Like’ every time I read one of your posts, Gary!
Thank you very much Jadi. That really means a lot to me 😃
Coincidentally Jadi, after I replied to your comment, the new Jetpack plugin update became available and it looks like the like button is working again 😃
This looks delicious!
Thank you very much 😃😃😃
I’m not a HUGE fan of quinoa, but this looks really good! The seafood helps!!!
Thank you very much. I think rice is better than quinoa for this purpose, but at the moment I’m avoiding rice, pasta and bread.
Well that makes sense!
I’m really surprised you didn’t add spam. It was practically begging for you to do it:) Looks really healthy and yum.
I know Serina, I was tempted. In the end, the scallops and prawns stood well by themselves 😃
A great way to diversify your grains!! Great news about your weight loss achievements! Well done!!
Thanks, Michele. It was a nice light meal.
You had me at scallops! I’ve never had quinoa fried rice before but it looks really good. I’d love to try this recipe with rice and maybe add a little bit of lap cheong… I’m a sucker for fried rice!
Thanks, Rose. While prawns and scallops are luxury items, I only bought 100 grams of each and it was a modest price. This is a luxurious meal for one or two.
Quinoa can be a good substitute for rice. Not something I usually go for and can’t remember the last time I had it. I’ve always remembered quinoa as pretty plain tasting. Big prawns. Very nice.
Thanks Mabel. While I used plain water, cooking in some chicken stock can make a difference to the flavour.
A very healthy dish I think Gary.
I felt like it was also a light meal compared to something with red meat. I was very nice.
Scallops and prawns are among my favourite seafoods and a perfect addition to this ‘fried rice’ bowl though the rich fattiness of the lap cheong would be a nice addition as well. Beautiful meal and pictures as usual.
Thank you very much
I really have added some sausage. The fattiness would have made it better 😃