Dinner for One - Lentils and Quinoa

Forgive the ugliness of this meal.  I will also admit that I had a leftover slice of pizza while this was cooking so my portion was quite small.  The main goal of this was to have leftovers that I could put on top of a salad for lunch the next day.

Recipe

1/2 cup Lentils

1/2 cup Quinoa

Stock (I used Mushroom)

1/2 tsp Paprika

Pepper

Both lentils and quinoa have a water ratio of 2 to 1.  Since we have a total of 1 cup of dried goods, use 2 cups of liquid.  This makes it easy to adjust when you want more or less.  I just happened to have some celery that needed to be used so it got diced and tossed in, but it doesn't really affect the dish much so it can be left out.  Combine everything in a pot and bring to a boil.  When it starts to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for around 15 minutes or until the liquid is all gone.

Possible modifications

This would be really good with other spices, especially curry powder.  I had considered tossing in some hot peppers, but decided I wasn't in the mood.  Get creative with what you have in the pantry and what you are in the mood for that day.

Salad Option:

This is what lunch the next day looked like.  Well worth the effort of the day before, but you could also have just go straight to making this as dinner.  Underneath there is a bed of romain lettuce, parsley and tomatoes.  On top there is the lentil and quinoa mixture plus some goat cheese.  It makes for quite the satisfying lunch considering how much protein is in lentils and quinoa.