Curried Quinoa Fried Rice

Quinoa is seasoned with curry powder and stir fried with veggies and chickpeas in this Indian twist on quinoa fried rice.

In my previous home, I had two cabinets in my kitchen. Not like, two and a little cubby, shelf or extra little cabinet on top of the stove, but two. Total. For dishes, food and everything else. Two would be rough on a college kid living on Chef Boyardee, but for someone who likes to cook, it was downright ridiculous. It was three years of opening a cabinet door and fleeing the room before getting knocked over by an avalanche of various forms of pesto and chutney.

As you might imagine, my current kitchen, having no less that eight full sized cabinets and a pantry, felt pretty damn palatial when I moved in. I thought I'd never, ever fill them up. It took about three weeks before the spills started again. My spice cabinet is the worst. I have bags, tins, shakers...all creating traffic jams preventing me from reaching whatever spice I happen to be looking for at any given moment. At some point I installed a turntable, thinking that would help organize and navigate. It doesn't turn anymore, and if I do get it to turn (because sometimes I'm that stubborn), a clot of multiple spice jars ends up bursting free, all flying in the direction of my face. The problem only compounds itself because when I go in there looking for something, I'll inevitably not be able to find it or just decide I don't have it out of sheer frustration. So I buy another. That's how I ended up with four jars of curry powder.

It's all good. Curry powder is nice to have on hand, and when I decided it was time to post a quinoa fried rice recipe, curry powder seemed the perfect seasoning blend. I'm looking on the positive side. In a way, it makes sense, because Indian curry powder has at least four different spices mixed in there. So it's okay to have four jars of the stuff clogging up my cabinet. Right?

And then there's the fact that this stuff was amazingly delicious. I'll always deal with a little organizational annoyance for a good meal, and the fact that it came together in less than thirty minutes...perhaps next time I make this I'll devote those saved minutes to organizing my kitchen.

📖 Recipe

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5 from 1 vote

Curried Quinoa Fried Rice

Quinoa is seasoned with curry powder and stir fried with veggies and chickpeas in this Indian twist on quinoa fried rice.

Course Entree

Cuisine American, Asian

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Alissa

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 ½ cups vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil divided
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 ½ tsp. fresh grated ginger
• 3 cups cauliflower florets about ½ large crown
• 1 red bell pepper diced
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
• 1 ½ tbsp. Indian curry powder
• 1 cup cooked or canned chickpeas rinsed and drained
• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 scallions chopped

Instructions

• Place quinoa and broth in small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cover, lower heat and allow to cook at a low simmer until all liquid is absorbed, 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit, covered, 5 minutes more.
• Coat a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and place over high heat. Add garlic, ginger, cauliflower and bell pepper. Stir fry for 3 minutes. Add another tablespoon of oil, cooked quinoa, soy sauce or tamari and curry powder. Stir fry until quinoa begins to crisp in spots, about 3 minutes. Add chickpeas and continue to stir-fry another minute, just until heated throughout.
• Remove from heat and stir in scallions and cilantro. Divide among plates or bowls and serve.

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