Variety. That is my dinnertime motto.
Growing up, my mother made the same meal every Tuesday and it used to drive me nuts. I am not sure why it bothered me so much but it was something about the routine, and knowing what we were having every Tuesday that made me hate Tuesday dinners. Now, I can appreciate Taco Tuesday or Pizza Friday every now and then but that’s a once a month thing – not every week.
So, for Tuesday night’s dinner, I decided to push the envelope a bit and make a new side dish. We were having grilled chicken for dinner and I wanted something to compliment it. As part of my final CSA pick up last week I received beautiful heads of fresh broccoli, five to be exact, so I knew my side dish had to include broccoli.
While at the New York City Wine and Food Festival I had a chance to connect with the nice folks from Shoprite, a local grocery chain here on the East Coast. My mother shopped at Shop Rite when I was growing up and it is where I shop for my family today. I love and know their products so when they offered me some items and asked me to see what I could come up with I totally took it as a challenge. Game on, Shoprite.
One of the products in my bag of Shoprite tricks was a beautiful bag of tri-color quinoa. Tri-color quinoa is a perfectly blended mix of white, red and black quinoa combined to create a unique texture typical of quinoa, complex flavor profile and a visually appealing presentation.
I decided to combine the tri-color quinoa and broccoli to create a great Tuesday side dish to compliment my chicken. The result was a zesty and flavorful side that took my sort of boring chicken and transformed the meal into something far more interesting. Check out my tri-color quinoa and broccoli recipe below.
Tri-Color Quinoa and Broccoli
Ingredients
- 3 cups blanched broccoli florets
- 2 cups cooked tri-color quinoa
- 2 TBS olive oil
- juice from 1 lemon
- 2 fresh garlic cloves chopped
- 2.5 TBS fresh parsley chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup finely shredded parmigiano reggiano
Instructions
- Blanch broccoli and cook quinoa, set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine olives oil, fresh lemon juice, finely chopped garlic cloves, chopped parsley and salt and whisk until dressing emulsifies (or temporarily blends and binds). Toss broccoli and tri-color quinoa together and pour dressing over top. Toss lightly to coat and combine. Top mixture with parmigiano reggiano and serve. Can be eaten warm or cold.
Shoprite had over 15 products available for tasting at the New York City Wine and Food Festival Grand Tasting. All of the recipes sampled at the Grand Tasting presented by Shoprite are available online at www.shoprite.com/festivalrecipes2013. I am loving this tri-color quinoa and broccoli. I can’t wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow for lunch. If you give it a try, loop back and let me know what you think.
Shoprite provided product for this post. Opinions and my loyalty to Shoprite are completely my own.
This article was written by Linda Arceo for Giggles, Gobbles and Gulps. Connect with me on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
This looks so good Linda! I don’t think I could ever have enough quinoa recipes. I love that it’s such a blank palette and can take on a zillion different flavor combinations.