Quinoa with pumpkin, haricot beans & seeds

This week I'm making some recipes from other food blogs for dinner. Tonight was supposed to be tuna from Food Stories however, when I tried to access the recipe I was told by Google that the link was broken - so no tuna! Luckily, another one of the recipes I had in store was vegetarian, so I was able to make this at the last minute without having to defrost meat.

This is a recipe from a great blog, Eat Like A Girl. The recipe is actually Israeli couscous with onion squash, haricot beans and pumpkin seeds however I instead used quinoa. Quinoa is a grain like crop, but actually high in protein and gluten free, which is why I like to eat it at night time instead of more stodgy carbs (not that I'd describe couscous as "stodgy"). You can buy it at Tesco and other supermarkets. It is very easy to cook and fluffs up like couscous.

I firstly roasted my pumpkin (or what Tesco describe as a "culinary pumpkin", for reasons known only to them) briefly in the oven before adding to a frying pan of sauteed shallots. You then just need to add the haricot beans and paprika, and then throw in your couscous/quinoa/brown rice or whatever grain you've decided to use. I added olive oil at this stage for a bit of moisture.

The recipe requires toasted pumpkin seeds, however as I was already toasting our weekly seed mix of sunflower & pumpkin seeds and hazelnuts, I used this instead. I also didn't have any sage (neither wisdom nor the herb), so substituted a small amount of tarragon (which would change the flavour somewhat, but as long as you don't add too much, is still delicious).

The end result is a surprisingly scrumptious and easy dinner, with a great depth of flavour - the seeds and nuts definitely make it. The leftovers are in plastic containers in the fridge and we are eagerly awaiting reliving the experience for lunch tomorrow! Thanks Niamh!