I stumbled across a recipe for Cherry Pistachio Quinoa a few weeks ago but didn’t have a chance to make it since I was in the middle of preparing for my Europe trip. (more to come on that later) I’m a doer, which is why Pinterest is dangerous for me. While most people are just pinning away recipes or projects that they will never do anything with, I’m headed to the grocery, craft and hardware store immediately!

So after overcoming my jet lag I headed to the grocery as there was nothing in my house post-Euro trip. At least I did manage to clean when I got home. Sometimes I contemplate creating my own sticker chart. I feel like I should get credit for my efforts.

Anyways, back to Quinoa. I have a confession. I have never cooked this before. *Gasp heard around the world* I know, from the person who has watched every reality cooking competition and can rattle off substitutions for anything it is shocking. But being Paleo, we don’t eat a lot of grains. Recently the Beard has added rice back into the diet as we need to up the calorie intake. As I’ve been considering dehydrated trail meal options I thought we would give Quinoa a try. Best decision ever.

I started with chopping up a Shallot. These are delicious little suckers and you should put them in everything. I cooked those in a saute pan until they became translucent and then added my quinoa with water and white wine.

While the quinoa was absorbing all the liquid I set about chopping the rest of my ingredients. I splurged and bought the pre-shelled pistachios from the bulk bin aisle. I only needed half a cup and was pleased that my ability to measure pistachios with my eye balls was spot on! Talk about life skills….

If you have a mini food processor or a ninja mixer like I do that is the way to go. Ain’t nobody got time for hand chopping!

Next I mixed together lemon, olive oil and pepper. Lots of cracked pepper. Then I tossed in my pistachios, chopped cherries and dressing.

Can you hear the angels singing?

I had a big bowl for dinner and had enough left over for The Beard who is anxiously awaiting his jar. I also plan on dehydrating this meal in the future. Cook the quinoa as normal, mix in the dressing and let cool. Spread on the dehydrator trays at 135 degrees for 8-12 hours. When complete you can store in vacuum seal bags with dried cherries and pistachios.

Quick note: I typically cook with what is on hand so if you don’t have pistachios substitute almonds. If you don’t have dried cherries, dried cranberries work wonderfully too. If you don’t have quinoa, well you should probably just make something else.