My friend Arielle is a ridiculous cook. She takes recipes that everyone knows and makes them healthy. Normally when people do this, it comes out tasting nothing like the original but she has a certain somethin’ somethin’ that makes her dishes incredibly good without tasting overly healthy. But you feel great after you eat them!

She made this un-fried vegetable quinoa recipe at a dinner party I went to at her house a few months ago and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. If you ever have a craving for Chinese take-out, I urge you to make this instead. It has the same deep, salty flavors but without the MSG and heavy oil. The only changes I made below from her original recipe are that I replaced the red peppers with corn and changed up the amounts. I’m not a fan of cooked red pepper for whatever reason.

This made about 4 servings.

Ingredients:
– 1 cup of uncooked quinoa (regular or red, whatever you prefer)
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 cup frozen peas (thaw by rinsing under water)
– 2 large carrots (chopped)
– 2 scallions (chopped)
– 1 yellow onion (chopped)
– 1 tblspn sesame oil (or olive oil to cook eggs)
– 3 tblspns toasted sesame oil
– 4 tblspns tamari
– 2 tblspns sesame seeds (optional)
– Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
– Rinse quinoa and cook according to directions.
– While the quinoa cooks, chop the vegetables and sautee all in sesame oil for 4-5 minutes (keep some of the scallions for garnish later)
– In a separate pan, scramble the egg with a dash of salt and pepper
– Once quinoa is cooked, egg is scrambled and vegetables are sauteed, mix all ingredients into a large bowl
– Sprinkle tamari, toasted sesame oil, a few leftover scallions and sesame seeds on top.
– Lightly mix together
– Enjoy!