Black Quinoa

For one of my Christmas presents I got a box of miscellaneous goodies from Williams Sonoma.  My husband knows I like pretty much anything from Williams Sonoma so he shops around the store and picks up various items and puts them together in a box/bag.  This year my “Williams Sonoma” box included a bag of black quinoa.  I had not yet seen the black variety and couldn’t wait to try it out.

Here’s my bag of black quinoa.  I don’t think the nutritional value is different from white or red quinoa, but it’s fun to have a different color.  There was some white and red quinoa mixed in the bag too, but it’s mostly black.

Here’s what it looks like cooked up. As you’d expect, it doesn’t take drastically different and I’d have to do a side-by-side comparison to tell if it tastes different at all.  Anyone know?

And here’s is what I made with my new black quinoa.

This dish is called Quinoa Pilaf with Spiced Miso Tahini Sauce from Sweet Potato Soul.

There is a lot going on in this dish. A lot.  There are black beans, cauliflower, squash, quinoa, raisins, onions, garlic, and the miso tahini sauce.  When I make this again (and I will) I plan to scale it back just a bit.  I think the squash can be left out, or maybe just served as a side dish.  Sweet Potato Soul shows the pilaf served atop roasted squash.  I roasted butternut squash and just mixed it in.  Perhaps that’s why it seems like too much going on???  I added dried cranberries instead of raisins and it was good, but I think raisins/cranberries could also be left out of this.  Also, not sure why she called the sauce spiced.  There is nothing spicy about the sauce.  It is, however, really darn good.  You should give it a try.

It’s time to go because DIL is on her way over to do a craft project with me.  If it turns out, I’ll show you later.

[Did you notice my pretty plate in the above photos?  A friend who reads my blog was apparently tired of seeing my same ole boring plates, so she bought me some pretty ones to use (from estate sales, I think.)  Thanks Sue!]