Discover a quick and beautiful stir fry using ancient grains and broccolini. Ready in 30 minutes it packs a nutritional punch!
I’m going to make a prediction that ancient grains are going to be a big thing over the next couple of years! Why? Errr because they are delicious, filling and healthy!
From my perspective, they are really easy to cook with. Usually it’s a case of plonking them in some water and either boiling them, or letting them sit in juices to do their thing. So, they are no hassle.
‘What are these ancient grains’ you ask? Well they are generally made up of the following:
Spelt, millet, barley, oats, freekeh, bulgur, emmer, einkorn, farro, sorghum, amaranth, chia, buckwheat, teff, khorasan wheat (kamut).
There might be a few I have missed. But these are the main ones that I know about and cook with.
They are called ancient grains because they have been around for donkeys years and basically because they haven’t been messed around with in terms of selective breeding (like modern grains). So, many people think that they are very good for you. That might be debatable, but one thing is for sure, they are delicious! In my opinion they always enhance the flavours of meals and also they provide amazing textures to dishes. So, I love cooking with them.
Ancient grains are also relatively cheap (depending on where you buy them) and they are very filling. They also provide a great substitute to the less adventurous rice. On a gluten note, the following ones are gluten-free, so therefore provide a great non gluten alternative for gluten intolerant peeps: Amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, and teff.
For this ancient grains stir fry, I have combined 2 different ancient grains with red rice, mainly to provide different textures to the dish. If you don’t happen to have all of the different grains available, then it won’t kill you to just use 1 grain for this dish, although try to make sure that it is 1 ancient grain and the rice and not just the rice!
This meal is fast, tasty, zesty, healthy and inexpensive.
If you want to pimp it up a little more and you are not vegan, then sprinkle a bit of feta cheese over the top!
x
Lisa
- 1 cup red rice (180 g)
- ¼ cup amaranth (30 g)
- ½ cup quinoa (60 g)
- juice and zest of 1 large orange (or 3 mandarins or 3 satsumas)
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 capsicum peppers, preferably different colours with seeds removed and thinly sliced
- 250 g broccolini, leaves removed and stems trimmed
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 Tbsp oil for frying (I used sesame oil)
- salt, for seasoning
- pepper, for seasoning
- ¼ cup dried cranberries (or dried apricots chopped small)
- 4 spring onions, chopped into rounds.
- Put the red rice in enough water to cover it and bring to the boil then simmer until cooked (approx. 15-20 minutes). Drain when cooked.
- Put the amaranth and quinoa into a pot with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil then simmer until the water is absorbed (approx. 15 minutes). Stir occasionally. Drain when cooked.
- In a frying pan add the oil, onion and garlic and fry until soft.
- Add the capsicum and fry until tender and slightly browned.
- Add the broccolini, cranberries, orange juice and zest. cook on a low heat until the broccolini is cooked. Add a little water if needed.
- Add the quinoa, amaranth and rice to the pan. Stir.
- Season to taste.
- Garnish with the spring onion rounds and drizzle with some olive oil.
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