Quinoa Jambalaya

Welcome back to another Foodie Friday that’s filled with delicious meals you can cook this weekend for your meal prep. Majority of the time when people decide to change their eating habits they often feel deprived of some of their favorite dishes. Here in the south, that means giving up wholesome cajun dishes such as fried food, rice and gravy and even jambalaya. Having to cut out certain foods often leads to individuals caving in and throwing in the towel on their nutritional goals. Luckily we’ve found a great substitute you can use in place of rice. It’s call quinoa! Quinoa is a protein-rich, gluten-free seed that is botanically related to spinach. It’s so delicious that you won’t even miss the rice! Give it a shot!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, or as needed
• 1 pound kielbasa (Polish) sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 1/2 sweet onion (such as Vidalia®), diced
• 6 miniature multi-colored sweet peppers, diced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup marinara sauce

Directions:

• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat; cook and stir sausage until browned, about 5 minutes. Add onion to sausage; cook and stir until slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir sweet pepper, oregano, thyme, cayenne pepper, celery salt, and red pepper flakes into sausage mixture; cook and stir until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
• Mix quinoa into sausage mixture; cook and stir until quinoa is slightly toasted, about 1 minute. Pour broth and marinara sauce over quinoa mixture. Cover skillet and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes.

Each serving contains 27.8 g. fat, 26.1 g. carbs and 14.7 g. protein. You can find the full recipe at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/239445/quinoa-jambalaya/