Recipe #6: Lemon Quinoa with Asparagus and Feta

I found this recipe online yesterday, when I was looking for recipes where we could use the last of our asparagus that has been sitting in the fridge for a few days. I ran across this recipe, and thought it sounded pretty delicious. We tried it, and we both really liked it! I had to leave out the thyme and the real juice of a lemon (instead, I used the commercial lemon juice out of the squeeze bottle, and it seemed to work out okay). Also, I used half of the original recipe ingredients, which was plenty for the two of us plus some left-overs. In the ingredients below, I have cut down the ingredients to what we used, which was plenty for two people. Also, I decided to use 1/2 cup red quinoa, and 1/2 cup regular 'white' quinoa... because it seemed like fun. =)

Time: 35-45 minutes

Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup Quinoa
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 shallot, minced (we just used white onion; had no shallots at the time)
- 1.5 pounds asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme (didn't have this in the house)
- 4 ounces feta, crumbled
- Juice of 1/2 lemon (used lemon juice out of squeeze bottle)

Directions
1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in medium saucepan. Add the quinoa and stir. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until quinoa has absorbed all of the water (15-20 minutes). Set aside (covered).
2. Meanwhile, heat 1/2 tbsp of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. When hot and shimmering, stir in the shallot/onion. Sauté, stirring often, until the shallot/onion is light brown (5-7 minutes).
3. Add the asparagus and thyme (if you have it) and cook, stirring often, until the asparagus is tender but still bright green (8-10 minutes). Add 2-3 tbsps of water halfway through cooking to steam the asparagus a little bit.

4. When the asparagus is finished, remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the quinoa, the crumbled feta, and the lemon juice. Season to taste with pepper, if desired.

Recipe idea from http://www.cookthink.com/recipe/3824/Lemon_Quinoa_With_Asparagus_And_Feta