Cheezy Quinoa

by j3nn on February 17, 2011

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

I hate when my battery dies midway through taking pics. It doesn’t happen often with my Rebel, so it caught me by surprise. I hardly ever check the battery status because it holds a charge for so long—I haven’t charged it since Xmas. Probably should pay more attention to that! I’m getting more use out of my cell phone as a camera than as a communication device. ha!

I’ve been wanting to make cheezy quinoa for a long, long time now, and finally tried it yesterday. I didn’t make it dairy-free, but it was hallfway dairy-free, LOL.

Don’t be intimidated by quinoa. It’s so easy to cook that even pasta looks complicated compared to it.

1 cup dry quinoa + 2 cups water in 2 quart saucepan

Bring to boil; boil for 5 minutes with cover on pot. Shut off, remove from heat. Let sit for 10-15 minutes with lid on pot. Fluff with fork.

That’s it! So simple. You can even make it in the microwave. I highly suggest buying the pre-washed kind. The kind that needs to be washed is a pain if you don’t have a small enough strainer.

Cheezy Sauce

1/3 cup 1% milk (I used lactose-free)
16g (~1/4 cup) nutritional yeast (nooch)
1/2 TBSP butter
Drop of yellow mustard
Black pepper to taste
Salt or salt substitute to taste

In a small saucepan, add all ingredients. Warm on low heat, stirring continuously. When sauce starts to thicken, remove from heat.

1 serving, multiply ingredients for more servings

I mixed about 1/2 cup cooked quinoa with the cheezy sauce and 1/2 cup steamed peas, which I had along side my Sloppy Josephine burrito made on a La Tortilla Factory extra virgin olive oil tortilla (100 cal, 290mg sodium) and leafy greens bacon salad.

2 thin slices precooked Heartland bacon (50 cal) gives such a flavor boost to an ordinary salad. Yum!

This is where my Rebel battery went on strike and I had to switch to my cell phone camera in a pinch. Lackluster much lol

Inside the burrito: ~1/2 cup leftover Sloppy Josephine (Sloppy Joes with lentils), ~1.5 oz Jarlsberg light Swiss cheese, 6 Roland gherkin pickles

Deeeeeeeelicious all the way around! Loved the cheezy quinoa, burrito, and salad. So GOOD! The cheezy sauce is not an automatic appeal to all cheese-lovers. I love all sorts of cheesy flavors, so the pungent nutritional yeast flavor makes my taste buds happy, but some people can’t stand it. I guess it’s one of those things that people either love or hate. You have to try it for yourself as it’s not exactly like cheese, but can definitely pass as a cheezy-like sauce. Plus, it’s loaded with protein (8g per 70 cal serving) and B12 vitamins. I find it makes a great cheezy sauce when mixed with blended beans. I dig it!

Question: Have you ever made a sauce using nutritional yeast? Would love to see your recipes!

Tagged as: burrito, cheezy sauce, intermittent fasting, lentils, nutritional yeast, quinoa, Sloppy Josephines, vegetarian, vegetarian recipes

{ 8 comments }

1 Mastering Public Health (@MasPublicHealth) Twitter: MasPublicHealth February 17, 2011 at 3:23 PM: Ahh! This is like my dream meal. Crunchy greens, “cheezy” quinoa (love how fast it cooks up) with peas, and Mama Pea’s “Sloppy Josephine” …in a wrap! How creative. I just bought a pound of organic green lentils from NutsOnline.com (amazing prices, btw – was $3.99/lb., and their organic green split peas = $2.99) — hope to make the Sloppy J’s soon.
2 Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga) Twitter: avericooks February 17, 2011 at 9:42 PM: “The kind that needs to be washed is a pain if you don’t have a small enough strainer.”—

first time i ever made quinoa i put it thru a strainer w/ too small of holes in it and an entire box went all over my floor. MONTHS LATER i was still stepping on little balls. oy.vey.

And nooch, i love it!

There’s a recipe on my site for quinoa mac n cheeze using nooch and quinoa. You may like that one!

Nooch and sauces, i have that nooch post with like 15 recipes in it, many of them sauces
See my spicy doritos dip
my cheezy sauce
and my kale chip coating which is an amazing sauce on anything!
3 Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table Twitter: Sprint2theTable February 17, 2011 at 10:18 PM: That looks fantastic! I need to try out cheesey quinoa, too.

Side note: what a difference in the Rebel vs. the cell phone!
4 Michelle @ Find Your Balance February 18, 2011 at 9:26 AM: Ages ago I made the nooch cheese sauce in Veganomicon – pretty darn good! But a few weeks ago I tried a cheesy quinoa myself – it didn’t turn out great so I didn’t put it on my blog It used real cheese and all…basically trying to make a healthier version of mac-n-cheese that kids (and my husband) would eat.
5 Christin@purplebirdblog Twitter: purplebirdblog February 19, 2011 at 2:22 AM: I love love LOVE cheezy quinoa (and brown rice)… I make it all the time! And the peas add such a badass touch!
6 Melinda Pollard Twitter: fabmelinda February 19, 2011 at 11:46 PM: I need to try this quinoa recipe- I love the nutritional yeast cheesey flavor!
7 Jarlsberg USA Twitter: JarlsbergUSA March 13, 2011 at 3:06 PM: This one fine looking meal. Love that it is healthy, balanced and delicious. And Jarlsberg Lite is a fantastic way to add the creamy, nutty flavor of our cheese to any dish. Thanks for including it!
8 Angela Twitter: vegangela April 5, 2011 at 12:13 AM: Just made your cheezy quinoa – awesome! I always felt kinda bad eating cheeze sauce with pasta, but now I have this great alternative. Stirred in some steamed kale, and it’s a healthy comfort-food. Thanks!