Chef's Original: Lunch for Work!

This is a dish I threw together last week and have since repeated as it is amazing for lunch on a workday. It began as a rough idea of throwing some things together. Namely, quinoa and peas. However, this changed to include a few more ingredients.

Ingredients
1 box Small Shell Pasta
1 cup Frozen Peas
1 cup Frozen Corn
2 cup Quinoa
Sea Salt
Italian Herb Mix
Shredded Asiago Cheese

I began this by filling my deep saucepan with water for the Pasta. I then put a dash of Sea Salt in the water and turned the heat to HIGH and covered it. I also turned the heat to MEDIUM for the Peas and Corn to start them cooking.

Now I turned to the Quinoa portion of this recipe. This part is made simple by use of a Rice Cooker. If you do not have one of these, I strongly suggest investing in one to suit your needs. I measured out the 2 cups of Quinoa and put it in the Rice Cooker.

Then I put in the 2.5 cups of Water that is required. Then plug the Rice Cooker in and push the level to COOK. Now let it be. You might need to let out some steam later on though, it does tend to bubble over a little bit with Quinoa.

Now turn to your pot of water for the Pasta. It should be boiling or close to it. Add in the entire box of Small Shell Pasta. Make sure they all sink. No, I am not sure why you should do this but I do it and so should you. It's what all the cool kids do...

Now that the Pasta is cooking, you might want to turn the heat down a little bit to around MEDIUM. I added in 2 large pinches of Italian Herb Mix at this point to flavor up the pasta a little bit.

Now stir it to make sure it mixes well.

A few minutes later the Pasta should look like the following picture as it is done. Taste test to make sure.

Oh look, the vegetables are done as well so turn their heat off.

Now it's just waiting on the Rice Cooker to cook that Quinoa. Oh no! It's almost foaming over!

Just take the top off long enough for a quick picture and it dies down.

It will click off to WARM once the cooking is done. You can leave it on that, but it dries the Quinoa out so I just unplug it.

Now, strain the Pasta first using a strainer. We don't want any water in this dish. Now put the Pasta into a large mixing bowl. Strain the frozen vegetables and put them in the same mixing bowl. On top of this add the Quinoa. Then stir some life into it! Go crazy and make it consistent throughout.

Then serve! I added a sprinkle of Italian Herb Mix and pinch of Shredded Asiago Cheese to the top. Enjoy!