Quinoa Lemon is a quick, 20 minute lunch box recipe prepared with Quinoa and Lemon. Traditional Indian lunch box variety rice. To make it bit healthy here is a version with Quinoa. Lemon quinoa is great for dinner too.
As a kid I hated Lemon flavor. I will find reasons to tell Amma for bringing full lunch box back home . After a point Amma stopped packing Lemon rice for my lunch. Well my dislike with Lemon flavor didn't stop with school it was there until recent months. After marriage my mother in law also won't cook anything with lemon. But now a days I started liking lemon based dishes.
Coming back to this Lemon Quinoa. packing lunch box is every woman's biggest concern. At times more than cooking my worry is to decide to what to cook. Sometime I open my fridge and scan for minutes together.
Finally I ask Jagadish what can I cook, he says make Paruppu rasam, I respond "Yesterday only I made sambar, again something with toor dal". He suggests me "Tomato Rice", I reply don't have enough tomatoes and the cycle continues. I do consider his opinion but at times I come up some weird reasons to avoid few recipes some days.
One such day came I was clueless. As usual I asked him and he said Lemon rice. I checked for lemons and luckily I had one in fridge, lemon rice it is.
We try to avoid white rice so make brown rice, hand pound rice, Quinoa, Fada and millets. I prepared traditional South Indian style lemon rice, instead of rice added Quinoa. Protein rich quick 20 minutes lunch is ready. This is tamil Brahmin style no onion- no garlic rice . If you like citrus flavour check out my Orange rice
Quino Lemon | Elumichai Quinoa | Lemon Quino
Ingredients
- Quinoa - 1/2 cup
- Big Lemon - 1/2
- Salt - as needed
- Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
- To temper:
- Oil - 1/2 tbsp
- Mustard seeds - 1/8 tsp
- Channa dal - 1 tbsp
- Split Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp
- Green chilli - 1 big
- Asofetida - generous pinch
- Curry leaves - few
- To garnish:
- Roasted cashew / roasted peanuts / slice almonds - few
Instructions
- In a wide colander rinse the quinoa well and drain the water
- In sauce pan add 1 cup of water and quinoa and bring to boil on medium heat
- Once when the water starts boiling bring down the heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes or till the water is absorbed and quinoa is cooked
- Switch off the flame and let it sit for 5 more minutes. Transfer it to wide plate/pan and fluff it
- Add oil to the pan once when the oil is hot add the ingredients under "to temper" and let it crackle. Add turmeric powder and mix well, switch off
- Add the thalipu (tadka/tempering) to the qunioa
- Once the quinoa is cooked a bit add 1/2 squeezed lemon and mix well. Garnish with nuts, Lemon quinoa is ready
Notes
2. Red chilli can be used instead of green and adjust the spice level according to your tastebuds
3. Lemon Quinoa can be made previous night and stays good for lunch box
Onion, ginger - garlic paste can be added for extra flavour
4. Quinoa can also be cooked in pressure cooker/instant pot/ microwave
Ingredients:
Quinoa - 1/2 cup
Big Lemon - 1/2
Salt - as needed
Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
To temper:
Oil - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/8 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
Split Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp
Green chilli - 1, big
Asofetida - generous pinch
Curry leaves - few
To garnish:
Roasted cashew / roasted peanuts / slice almonds - few
Method:
- In a wide colander rinse the quinoa well and drain the water
- In sauce pan add 1 cup of water and quinoa and bring to boil on medium heat
- Once when the water starts boiling bring down the heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes or till the water is absorbed and quinoa is cooked
- Switch off the flame and let it sit for 5 more minutes. Transfer it to wide plate/pan and fluff it
- Add oil to the pan once when the oil is hot add the ingredients under "to temper" and let it crackle. Add turmeric powder and mix well, switch off
- Add the thalipu (tadka/tempering) to the qunioa
- Once the quinoa is cooked a bit add 1/2 squeezed lemon and mix well. Garnish with nuts, Lemon quinoa is ready
Checkout other Quinoa based recipes in TMF.
Nice way to use Quinoa, Vidya
Very nice dear 🙂