Quinoa Shrimp and Kale Recipe

Quinoa has been everywhere for a few years now?! However, many of us can't even pronounce it ( it's pronounced Keen-Wah btw) never-mind have cooked or eaten it lol. After doing some research on this stuff I decided that it's a great way to switch up from my normal brown rice. Here's the skinny on quinoa, it's a seed not a grain and is a complete protein, yup those tiny seeds contain all nine of the essential amino acids that the body can't make so we rely on food to get. Quinoa is also naturally gluten-free, so it’s perfect for healthy eaters according to The Huffington Post. After hearing about the health benefits of quinoa I knew I wanted to give it a try.

Now I'm always down for a healthy, quick meal so I found a recipe for a Spicy Shrimp and Quinoa Bowl out in the blogosphere. It looked pretty good but she doesn't do spicy food so I altered it a lil' and it was delish! The whole meal was completed in about 30 mins and was very simple to make bonus it contained two superfoods kale and quinoa. So let's get into this quinoa bowl...

The Necessities:

1 c Cooked quinoa (about ½ cup dry quinoa to 1 cup chicken stock will give you a lil' more than 1 cup of cooked quinoa)

5 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

¼ tsp onion powder

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp salt (I use Pink Himalayan)

Ground black pepper

1 c kale chopped kale (stems removed)

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ c grated parmesan cheese

2 tsp coconut oil

Cook your quinoa according to package instructions using stock instead of water (I used rainbow quinoa). While that's cooking liberally season both sides of the shrimp with the garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper. Heat a skillet over medium/high heat with about 1 teaspoon of coconut oil. Cook shrimp thoroughly until they turn opaque white/pink and are nicely browned. Set shrimp aside and turn the skillet down to medium/low heat. Add the remaining coconut oil and minced garlic. Sauté the garlic until it's wonderful flavor fills the air (Mmmm yummy) and then add the kale. Season with salt and pepper remember to keep stirring the kale make sure that it is getting tender and not burning. Once the kale is cooked remove from heat. Next add the parmesan cheese to the cooked, warm quinoa. Add the kale to the quinoa and mix together. Spoon the quinoa and kale into a bowl and top with shrimp. To save calories I didn't sprinkle any parm on top but you sure can! 

So that's it my first time eating and cooking quinoa and it was perf! I'll be making this again soon I'm sure how about you? I'd love to know if you give it a try too so comment below or hit me up on Instagram.

XoXo-

Brandi