I love when I find an ingredient that I haven’t cooked before – it doesn’t happen all that often, so I get very excited.  My husband had been talking about quinoa a lot lately – he recently had it at a restaurant and told me how delicious it was.  I had also eaten it at restaurants before, but oddly enough, had never made it at home.

I was at Trader Joes the other week, and noticed a box of quinoa on the shelf – even though I had no idea what I was going to do with it, I decided it was time to try it out.  Luckily on the way home I remembered this recipe I saw in Cooking Light  that definitely looked intriguing.  Basically, anything with fennel in it looks intriguing to me…so I found the recipe, and gave it a try.  We loved it – the quinoa was nice and nutty, and the chickpeas added a different texture to the grainy quinoa – and then came the fennel with the fresh lemon juice – what a wonderful combination.  Oh – and did I happen to mention how ridiculously healthy this dish is?  Good thing I had some Sour Cream Pound Cake with Lavender Peaches left to balance out the meal…

Ingredients

Quinoa:

• 2  teaspoons  extra-virgin olive oil
• 1  garlic clove, minced
• 1  cup  organic vegetable broth
• 1  cup  water
• 1  cup  uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt

Chickpea mixture:

• 2  teaspoons  extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2  cups  thinly sliced leek (about 1 large)
• 4  garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 1/2  cups  sliced fennel bulb (about 1 large)
• 1 3/4  cups  (1/4-inch-thick) slices carrot (about 3/4 pound)
• 1/2  teaspoon  fennel seeds
• 1/2  cup  white wine
• 1  cup  organic vegetable broth
• 4  teaspoons  chopped fresh thyme, divided
• 1  (14 1/2-ounce) can no-salt-added chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lemon juice
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1  (5-ounce) package baby spinach