Quinoa with Roasted Chick Peas and Squash

Have you ever had deep fried chick peas? I had them once, I was with a group of people at a restaurant in the Berkshires (I would tell you the name, but it is long defunct) and the chef sent an order over.  We devoured them, and promptly re-ordered them at least two more times. I have never attempted making them at home, but today as I was contemplating my next quinoa recipe I decided to ‘oven-fry’ some chick peas, and while I was at it decided to add some of the butternut squash I had on hand.

Because the chick peas were already cooked I had to dice the squash very small so it would cook enough before I burned the chick peas. I also wanted to make sure the chick peas were really dry, so after I toasted the quinoa, I put the peas into the pan on low heat, and tossed them until steam was no longer visible coming off them, then left them in the pan off the heat while I chopped the squash. 

I toss my vegetables with oil before I roast them to help them brown, and make them a little crisp, if you want to skip the oil you can. The vegetables will eventually brown as the sugars caramelize, and if you don’t use oil I advise using lower heat, because you’ll need more roasting time to achieve some color. When roasting I also prefer dried to fresh herbs, and because I was using high heat for this mix I used garlic salt rather than fresh garlic, as I was concerned the garlic would burn. 

As with many recipes I post, this one is very flexible, and you can toss in whatever you have on hand and sounds good. I don’t recommend substituting the peas for another type of bean. I think as the weather gets warmer this would be nice with zucchini instead of hard squash, and some chopped fresh parley would brighten it up if you wanted to serve this cold. I used beef stock to make the quinoa, and if you wanted to make this vegan I suggest using mushroom stock.

Quinoa with Roasted Chick Peas and Squash

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Serves	6-8
Prep time	30 minutes
Cook time	1 hour
Total time	1 hour, 30 minutes
Dietary	Vegan, Vegetarian
Meal type	Main Dish, Side Dish
Misc	Serve Cold, Serve Hot

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups beef or mushroom stock
• 1 can chick peas (15 ounces, rinsed and drained well)
• 12oz butternut squash (diced into 1/4)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 teaspoons sage
• 1/2 teaspoon grains of paradise (or fresh ground black pepper)
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 400 In a saute pan toast quinoa over medium heat for five minutes, shaking pan to move quinoa

Step 2

Put stock into medium sized saucepan, add toasted quinoa and 2 teaspoons of sage (reserve one teaspoon for the roasted chick peas) bring to boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, remove lid and fluff with fork

Step 3

In the same pan you toasted the quinoa, put the chick peas, and shake in pan over low heat until steam stops rising off the peas. Turn off heat and leave peas in the pan to cool a bit

Step 4

in a large bowl combine squash, chick peas, oil, spices, and the remaining teaspoon of sage Line a cookie sheet with parchment and put mixture into pan, roast for 20 minutes

Step 5

Mix all engredients together, add more salt or pepper to taste. Serve hot or cold. If serving cold add 1/2 cup of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley