I’ve had a lull in cooking inspiration the past few days, perhaps because I was distracted by all of the Halloween festivities going on around me.  I didn’t even cook anything with pumpkin this weekend (but I did put together a great costume)! Tonight, however, my cooking fever came back and along with it came my new favorite dish.

I’ve been eyeing the black quinoa at the market for a while now, but it’s large price tag has deterred me from picking it up.  Tonight, I decided to splurge because I needed to try something new and feel inspired, and I’m glad that I did.  I had heard that black quinoa is a bit nuttier in texture compared to red or white quinoa so I thought I would run with that.  I picked up some pine nuts, walked around the market a little more looking for inspiration, got distracted by the smell of fresh ground coffee, and finally made my way back to the produce section where I started to taste red onion in this dish.  Since I needed to feed my  daily cheese craving, I figured I would top this off with some parmesan cheese that I already had at home.  This dish wound up being pretty cheap after all.  I cooked the quinoa in part water, part vegetable broth, toasted the pine nuts, chopped up the onion, grated the cheese and tossed it all together into what turned out to be a delicious, perfectly textured collision of flavors. Another great thing about this dish is that pine nuts are not only antioxidant packed, but they are known to suppress your appetite thanks to the polyunsaturated fats in them, so this one will leave you feeling satisfied!

1 cup black quinoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 small red onion chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts
fresh parmesan to grate on top

In a small pot, bring quinoa, water and vegetable broth to a boil and then reduce to simmer. Let simmer for about 15 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed (stirring occasionally). Meanwhile, place pine nuts on small pan and let toast over low-medium heat, tossing occasionally so that both sides get toasted. When quinoa and pine nuts are done, combine them and add red onion and top with grated parmesan.