This Roasted Garlic Quinoa is a humble side dish that will impress you with its sweet, mild garlic flavor. If you’re bored of your current rotation of grains, try this new twist on my favorite simple quinoa side.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by NOW Foods as part of an ongoing partnership. I was compensated for my time, and all opinions are my own.
We all are no strangers to burnout. Whether it be work, school, personal commitments or routine, we all need to shake things up sometimes. For me, this is even more relevant for food.
Three times a day (or more!), we put delicious meals in our mouths. When life gets full, I know I tend to default to simpler options – take out, or scavenging the freezer for something I might have tucked away. While I try my best to make a few items simply – a big pot of steel cut oatmeal to eat all week, a giant pan of roasted vegetables, a pot of grains or a soup – it can get boring.
Today’s recipe for Roasted Garlic Quinoa is a simple one that is almost fully hands off, but still full of flavor. While I prep NOW Foods quinoa all the time, it wasn’t until I started including roasted garlic in it that I would crave eating it plain.
If you need a shake up of your meal prep routine, you’ve got to try my new favorite grain.
I recommend roasting a bunch of heads of garlic even though you only need 1 for this recipe.
Whether you plan to double or triple the recipe to enjoy all week, or enjoy roasted garlic for other meals, it’s a simple few steps to a delicious outcome.
- Garlic heads (minimum 1)
- Olive oil for roasting
- 1 cup dry quinoa
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut off the tops of the garlic heads to expose the cloves. Set them on tinfoil in a pan and generously drizzle olive oil overtop. Crimp closed the tin foil to hold in heat and roast the garlic for 30-35 minutes.
- Allow the head to cool and then use your fingers to squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skin. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Take 1 head roasted garlic (about ¼ cup mashed roasted garlic) and combine in a pot with quinoa, salt and pepper. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and cover the pot for 20-25 minutes, or until the liquid is all absorbed. Turn off the heat and stir the quinoa, and replace the lid for an additional 5 minutes.
The garlic can be roasted up to 4 days in advance, with the roasted cloves stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
I like to mash them all after roasting, when they have cooled a bit, so it’s easy to pull out and use in lots of recipes. Leftover roasted garlic is great stirred into soups, mashed as a spread for sandwiches, or spread onto baked chicken.
Be well,
Marisa
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