A little quinoa bowl is enough for a light dinner with a salad. Especially that today I did not have any energy whatsoever. Muggy and awfully grey weather, friends moving out of the Bay Area, is not helping with the blues.

It felt like the sky was falling on my head. That is a feeling I am very familiar with, since I grew up in the Eastern part of France, where everything is sooo green (soooo green, is what people say), obviously it’s so green because of the rain.

Gray weather +  not wanting to spend to much time in the kitchen = quinoa

I mixed many vegetables to this quinoa so that one bowl would be nutritious enough as a meal. The spices gave it a nice kick, a little exotic flavor to it.

Ingredients for 4 as side dish

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1/3 cup peas
• 1 onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs mustard seeds
• 1 tbs cumin seeds
• 1 tbs coriander powder
• 4 cardamom pods
• 3 curry leaves
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Chop the onions and brown in olive oil, add garlic, stir for a few minutes at low heat. Add the spices, mix well for a few minutes, then the carrot and the peas. Stir the mixture. Add quinoa, and cook for a few minutes with the mixture. Add broth, curry leaves, salt and pepper.

Cut the asparagus in one inch chunk and cook them the in salted boiling water, for 5 minutes or more, until cooked but still firm.

Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to very low, and cook for about 20 minutes until the quinoa has absorbed the water.

When quinoa is cooked, add asparagus and mix well. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve hot.