Our favorite dinner during the weekday in January: Soup and THESE QUINOA BOWLS! Actually these bowls have pretty much been on a weekly rotation for about a year now.

I hate to be a walking cliché in January, but I had to start off this Monday with one of my favorite healthy weekday meals. Whenever we’re stuck on what to eat during the week my mind immediately goes “red pepper sauce?!” I’ll be the first to tell you that there’s nothing worse the a plain bowl of boring quinoa and blah veggies. THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT THAT. I cook the quinoa in vegetable or chicken stock and then top it with diced red onion, cucumber, kalamata olives, feta cheese, cilantro, and the creamiest roasted red pepper sauce that you will want to eat straight out of the blender. This bowl is bursting with flavor and is everything you want to pep up your Monday night dinner!

This is also one of my favorite lunches to have throughout the week. To make it easy, I usually mix all of the ingredients together and spoon it into a mason jar which makes it carrying to work a breeze! One of my blog goals of 2019 is to share easy and practical dishes that we make all the time in our house – and this is definitely one of those!

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Roasted Red Pepper Quinoa Bowls

makes 4 servings

Ingredients

for the bowls
– 2 cups quinoa
– 4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock (water is fine too if you don’t have stock!)
– diced red onion
– diced cucumber
– pitted kalmata olives
– feta cheese
– chopped cilantro or parsley

for the red pepper sauce
– 4 red peppers, stem and core removed
– 1 cup of raw cashews
– 1/2 cup almond milk
– 2 large garlic cloves
– 2 teaspoons salt

what to do

1. roast the peppers. preheat the oven to 400. Slice the red pepper around its core and discard the seeds and stem. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast the peppers, turning them occasionally until they are soft and charred in some places. About 20-25 minutes.

2. While the peppers are roasting, make the quinoa. I usually boil the quinoa in vegetable or chicken stock to give it more flavor, but water will work fine as well! mix 2 cups of quinoa with 4 cups of stock or water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover, stirring occasionally, until the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid and is fluffy, about 10-15 minutes.

3. To make the red pepper sauce, place roasted peppers, cashews, almond milk, garlic, and salt in a high powered blender and blend on high until you have a smooth creamy sauce. You can adjust with more almond milk if the mixture is too thick, but I find that the peppers usually release a lot of liquid! Adjust garlic and salt if needed.

4. to assemble the bowls, spoon a mound of quinoa in your bowl and make a little well to pour in your pepper sauce. Top with onions, cucumber, feta, olives, herbs, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes if you want some heat!