Quinoa w/ Sweet Potatoes, Garlic, & Spinach
This Spinach Quinoa consists of fresh spinach, sweet potatoes, shallots, garlic, tamari (or soy sauce of choice), and rice vinegar. It's a great simple recipe to throw together with your own favorite ingredients or what you have lying around.
Equipment
- Rice Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 sweet potato diced
- 3/4 c. spinach chopped
- 1 shallot minced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 c. white quinoa
- 3 c. water
- 1/4 c. tamari (or soy sauce of choice)
- 1/4 c. rice vinegar
- dash salt
- dash pepper
Instructions
- Add sweet potato, spinach, shallot, garlic, quinoa, and water to a rice cooker.I'll usually start with the larger ingredients, like sweet potatoes, and end with the spices on top. But this is more or less a matter of personal preference. Everything will eventually cook in!
- Press the cook button on the rice cooker. While quinoa is not rice, it does cook the same and oftentimes better than rice in a rice cooker. It typically takes 30-45 minutes.
- When the quinoa is fully cooked, add rice vinegar, tamari, salt, and pepper.Different brand of vinegar and tamari will have vastly different tastes. I recommend starting with a couple of tablespoons and then building up. These flavors will also seep in over time and become stronger the longer that it sits. So make sure not to add too much! Particularly if you aren't serving right away.
- Fluff with a wooden spoon and serve.Do not use a fork or other metal utensil to fluff! It will scratch off the nonstick surface on the rice cooker. This will leach teflon into your food and cause future dishes to stick to the bottom.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
- While quinoa is not rice, it does cook the same and oftentimes better than rice in a rice cooker. For more tips and tricks to rice cooker quinoa, check out my article on The Fundamentals of Making Quinoa, including a stovetop version if you don't have or don't want to use a rice cooker.
- I also tend to prefer tamari over soy sauce. They're both made from fermented soy and a lot of recipes use them interchangeably. Tamari tends to have a richer flavor and less salt content. It also tends to be gluten free.