Healthy Fried (Rice) Quinoa

I’m a sucker for Asian cuisine. My last meal would be full-blown, deluxe edition asian dinner with sushi, pad thai, all kinds of stir fry. Sadly, all that rice ain’t good for me. So I try sometimes to find healthier replacements. Last night I thought I’d make fried rice, but decided to replace the rice with quinoa in order to make it a little healthier. Definitely worth trying, not a bad replacement at all!

Healthier fried (rice) quinoa

1 cup quinoa

1 1/2 cup water

1 cube chicken broth (if you can get already made broth, use that instead of water)

3-4 carrots

1/2 – 1 cup frozen green peas (amount depends on preference)

2 large scallions

2 chicken breasts

2 eggs

Low-sodium soy sauce

Oystersauce

1. Put the quinoa and water (with the brothcube) in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling, put a lid on and let it simmer on a low heat for approx. 20min. Technically you’re supposed to rinse the quinoa a few times before putting it in the saucepan. If you have a strainer that is fine enough, do that. I didn’t but it went ok!

2. Cut the chicken into bite-sized cubes and toss in a frying pan with about a tbs of vegetable oil. I seasoned it lightly with dried cilantro. Once the chicken is cooked through, put aside.

3. Cut the carrots into 1x1cm cubes and the scallions into slices about the same size as the carrot-cubes. In a wok pan (or a frying pan if it’s big enough), toss in the carrots and frozen peas with about a tbs of vegetable oil and fry on medium heat until they are cooked through and soft.

4. Turn the heat up and add the scallions. Fry the vegetables for about 2 min then make an opening in the center of them. Crack in one egg at a time, making sure to stir so it becomes scrambled. Once the eggs scrambled, add the chicken and the cooked quinoa.

5. This next part is a taste-as-you-go way of seasoning. I add about 1 tbs (?) of low-sodium soy sauce and maybe 2 tbs oystersauce, but this all depends on the amount of the other ingredients and your own personal taste. If desired, add more oystersauce. This is what gives most of the fried rice flavor.

Feel free leave a comment below if you try the recipe to let me know what you think!

Enjoy!