Roasted Vegetables with Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce and Red Quinoa

Joey and I made a delicious dinner the other night, and it didn't require a lot of effort. I think it was the perfect semi-homemade meal for a weeknight dinner, and is even less time if you make some of the ingredients in advance.

When I got home from work, I got started on roasting a ton of veggies. I made more than we needed for this meal, so we would have extras. Since I made the veggies in advance, that meant that once we got back from Joey's frisbee game around 8, we wouldn't have to wait long for a complete meal. We cooked the quinoa while simmering the sauce with the pre-cooked veggies. Joey cooked some chicken to go with his - mine was a veggie-only dish since I wasn't in the mood for shrimp or tofu. 

This would work really well with any kind of veggies, and could be served over quinoa or rice. 

Recipe: Roasted Vegetables with Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce and Red Quinoa

Yield: 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

1/2 large onion, halved and sliced

4 medium cremini mushrooms, sliced (about 1 cup)

1 bell pepper, sliced

1 cup baby carrots

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 cups chopped cauliflower

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic

12 oz jar of Trader Joe's Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce (or your favorite sauce)

1/2 cup bamboo shoots

2 cups chopped baby corn

1 cup red quinoa or brown rice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 F. Line 2 sheet pans with foil and spray with Pam. Spread out the onion, mushrooms, pepper, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower on the prepared pans. Drizzle with the olive oil, tossing to coat. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and garlic on top. (I went light on seasoning, as to not interfere with the cooking sauce.) Put in the oven, and flip over the veggies every 10 minutes. It should take 25-30 minutes to cook. If some start cooking faster than others, pull them out and let the rest cook. (I had to take the broccoli out first.)

While the veggies are cooking, start your quinoa or brown rice. Brown rice will take a while to cook on the stove, and usually uses 2 - 2 1/2 cups of liquid for every cup of rice. Quinoa needs to be rinsed and drained before cooking, and usually uses 1 1/2 - 2 cups of liquid for every cup of quinoa. 

In a large sauce pan, combine the cooked veggies, the simmer sauce, bamboo shoots, and baby corn over low heat. Add a few tablespoons of water to the jar of sauce and shake it up, pour that in the pan as well (it helps get out every bit of the sauce!) Simmer with the lid on for 10-15 minutes, until the flavors have melded. If too much water evaporates from the sauce, feel free to add back some water or coconut milk, to thin it out. You want to have enough sauce to coat everything, and still have some to pour over your rice or quinoa. 

Please excuse the horrible pictures - we were in a hurry to eat!

Tons of veggies - this includes the extras I made

First time using red quinoa!

Here's the sauce we used

See - lots of sauce left to get soaked up by the quinoa

My finished plate