We eat a fair amount of quinoa, but to say it's something that brings me great joy would be a clear overstatement. Quinoa is healthy and it can absorb flavor from other ingredients, but it's overwhelming feature is blandness. It's functionally an inoffensive way to sop up other stuff, or feel less guilt than from eating rice.
Enter Cook's Illustrated Quinoa Pilaf with Herbs and Lemon – or a "why not" experiment given this post's introduction. The end result was pretty good – a deep onion flavor from the onion itself and some chives I added, and a lightness and tartness from the lemon juice. I'm not sure if it really changes my view of quinoa – a flexible backdrop to other stuff. But this recipe may be a repeat insofar as it can complement perhaps some stews, soups, and other small party plates (grilled cheeses and the like).
You start by washing and drying out the quinoa on paper towels, which was a bit of a pain, but not an awful first step.
You then toast the quinoa until fragrant and nutty.
Then you set aside the toasted quinoa to cook down the onion in some butter before adding back the quinoa and water to complete the cooking.
After the quinoa is cooked fully, you then let it sit (covered) for ten minutes before fluffing the cooked quinoa with a fork, adding the lemon juice and other herbs as you go.
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