Easy quinoa with mushrooms, arugula and thyme

Day 2: Easy quinoa with mushrooms, arugula and thyme 

Well, it's official. After all the parties; the famous Dutch 'Queens'- into 'Kingsday', the holiday of the kids with sleepovers and thus more get togethers with friends and drinks: it was time to just stop for a while. Get our bodies back in shape, get clean again and healthy. We decided to take a break on our grown habits: coffee in the morning, many products with gluten (bread, pasta's, potatoes etc), dairy (cappuchino's, cheeses..), our awesome glasses of Chardonnay (God, I miss you already), and all the other goods that go along.. (which might be vegetarian, but maybe not that healthy..)

Just none of it all for (at least) 30 days. Our  '30 day challenge' started yesterday, and though i thought it might be tough here or there.. it really isn't at all! (so far.. this is day two, i admit) But it just feels great being busy with your health in a good way; finding and creating new recipes without the stuff that makes you tired and look and feel exhausted! Fresh juices in the morning, great salads for lunch and awesome dishes for dinner...
While we actually just wanted to quit drinking alcohol for a month, we decided to go radical, and quit drink and eat many things of our normal diet.

Thereby, I bought the amazing new cookbook of Gwyneth Paltrow, (yes, she is a cookbook author, I didn't know that either) which just amazes me with beautiful pictures and incredibly simple but tasty recipes.
The book 'It's all good', which Gwyneth wrote with co-author and food-writer Julia Turshen, is really a must have, if you want to change your normal eating program for whatever reason, or suffer allergies like gluten- or dairy intolerances. This easy quinoa recipe is one of hers, and is so easy, it's almost amazing it tastes so good!

Oh, come on, and join us, it's only for 30 days!

SEE THE WHOLE RECIPE

Ingredients (serves 4)

1/4 cup (4 tbsp) of extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
1 pound crimini mushrooms (the brown ones)
Coarse sea salt
1 cup (200 gr.) quinoa
3 large handfuls of arugula, roughly chopped
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

• Cook the quinoa in 1 3/4 cup  / 400 ml of water with salt for about 12 - 14 minutes, or until the water is totally sucked up. Turn down the heat, and let it rest for at least 5 minutes with the lit on,  before you begin to stir anything in or through it.
• (make sure you rinse the quinoa well before cooking, it really makes a difference to it's taste)
• Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet, set over high heat
• Add the garlic and thyme to the pan, and cook for about 30 seconds.
• Add the mushrooms to the pan, along with a good pinch of salt, and cook, while stirring now and then until they've softened and browned.
• Transfer the mushroom mixture to a large mixing bowl along with the quinoa and half of the arugula and stir to combine.
• Season with a bit more salt and lot's of freshly ground pepper.
• Garnish with the rest of the arugula.

Rince your quinoa well, before cooking

2 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

1 can of crimini mushrooms, diced

1/4 cup olive oil

Cook the thyme and garlic in the olive oil for 30 seconds, than add the mushrooms

Chop the arugula roughly

Your mushrooms are ready when they look like this!

Add the quinoa and half of the arugula to the mushroom mixture, and season with salt and pepper

Garnish with the rest of the arugula

Bon appétit!