Quinoa with Balsamic Mushrooms

Yum! This was really good and packed a lot of protein. There was so much good stuff in this recipe. It made me feel good eating it. The pear and balsamic vinaigrette that you make is really good and would taste great on a nice salad. My favorite part about the recipe was definitely the mushrooms. I could even eat them alone!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 small pear, cored and cut into chunks
• 1 garlic clove, halved
• 2 lbs portobello mushrooms, stemmed with gills scraped out
• 1 cup quinoa
• 3 cups tightly packed spinach, chopped
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475F. In a blender, combine vinegar, mustard, pear, and garlic with 1/3 cup water. Blend until smooth. Cut portobellos into chunks. Take 1/4 cup of the dressing and toss with mushrooms. Lay mushrooms on a baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.
2. While mushrooms roast, bring 1 3/4 cup water to boil in a medium pot. Add quinoa, cover pot, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside, covered, for 10 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork.
3. In a large bowl, toss mushrooms, quinoa, spinach, green onions, almonds, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup pear balsamic dressing. Stir to mix completely.

Source: The Sweets Life