Chicken and Vegetable Tagine with Quinoa

Hi everyone,

I LOVE veggies (that I’m not allergic to – haha!), therefore, this dish is really a favourite of mine. It is a simple tasty dish that is well balanced as well as filling – a medley of vegetables and chicken, sprinkled with crumbled feta atop a bed of (one of my favourite ingredients) yummy, fluffy quinoa!

I was pleased the other day looking through the average supermarket, to find that coles and woolworthes now sell quinoa! In Australia, this item use to be only available from health food stores. But browsing through the supermarket, a lot of items that use to be restricted to specialty stores are now easily available, from chia seeds to goji berries -  it’s great these foods are gaining attention and being used more often in the mainstream

I love cooking with quinoa – I find it a great substitute to couscous and also mixed it up from the usual rice dishes!
Apart from being delicious, it is packed with lots of nutrients (eg. higher in lysine than wheat, and is considered a complete protein!), it is also gluten-free!

Anyways, back on topic to the recipe! Please find as follows below!

Hope you enjoy!

Elle

Chicken and Vegetable Tagine with Quinoa Recipe

Serves 4.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 brown onion, halved, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2cm piece ginger, peeled, finely grated
• 3 & 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• Half butternut pumpkin, cut into 4cm pieces
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 215g green beans, trimmed, halved
• 700g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 3cm pieces
• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• Two handfuls of spinach leaves
• Feta – to sprinkle

Method

1. Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until golden. Add garlic, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, coriander and nutmeg. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
2. Add stock, stirring and scraping base of pan. Add pumpkin, carrot, zucchini and beans. Cover and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cook, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes or until tender.
3. Meanwhile, bring the 1 cup of quinoa to the boil in two cups of water and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cover with a tight fitting lid and turn heat down to simmer. Cook for 15 minutes (once done, remove quinoa from heat and allow to sit for five minutes with lid on – then fluff with a fork).
4. While quinoa and vegetable mixture is cooking, prepare the chicken. Heat 2 teaspoons remaining oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Stir through vegetable mixture.
5. Remove tagine from heat, add spinach leaves and stir.
6. Place desired amount of quinoa on each plate, spoon over chicken and vegetable tagine. Sprinkle with feta. Serve!

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