Quinoa Breakfast Porridge with Hot Blueberry Drizzle (20 Min, Vegan)
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Ah porridge. Just the word conjures up images of snow-covered fields, warm hearths and roaring fireplaces, cold mornings and hot, rustic breakfasts beneath the covers.
This quinoa porridge is absolutely nothing like that.
To start with it’s so cool you’re not even allowed to say ‘quin-o-ah’ – you’ve gotta call it ‘keen-wah’, otherwise you’re really not with it. And may well get arrested. By the pronunciation police.
It’s also not a thick, stodgy meal that porridge often turns into when not cooked right, but a relatively light, refreshing breakfast (or lunch, or dinner) bursting with fruit and the flavours of summer.
Put short, it’s delicious.
One of the most exceptional things about this version of quinoa porridge is that it’s combined with a few tablespoons of hot blueberries.
It has everything – Indian spices, crunchy nuts and these amazing almost-like-jam sweet blueberries. You don’t even need to add an additional sweetener! Right on.
Health Benefits Quinoa Porridge
We’re a little obsessed with quinoa at the moment, not least for the fact that it’s a complete protein.
In layman’s terms this means that it contains all of the essential amino acids needed to build new protein.
Protein is incredibly important to our bodies – we need it for so many things from building and repairing muscle to keeping our immune systems strong – in fact we can’t live without it.
If you’re interested, this page explains more.
Vegetarians and especially vegans often find themselves subjected to questions like ‘where do you get your protein?’ or ‘why aren’t you dead yet?’ when they announce they don’t eat meat or even animal products.
This is linked to the old bullshit myth that protein is only found in meat – nothing could be further from the truth, of course.
Protein is all around us – however many vegetarian sources (grains, legumes, nuts etc) don’t contain all the essential amino acids (the ones your body can’t produce on it’s own), so we have to mix and match our intake to make sure all the protein can get made properly.
That’s not really a problem and you’ll often do it without even knowing you are (so don’t let it put you off not eating meat!) – but it’s where quinoa really stands out too.
Being a complete protein, quinoa doesn’t need to be combined with anything else for it to work – it’s ready to go as it is.
So whether you’re just looking for a healthy meal to keep yourself going or veritable feast after a hard workout when your muscles need all the help they can get, you need look no further than lovely quinoa (though you might also want to look at some of these awesome vegetarian post-workout meals!).
Ingredients
- ½ cup quinoa
- 1 cup soy milk
- ½ cup water
- 1 star anise (known as aniseed to some!)
- 3 green cardamom pods
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp almonds (chopped)
- 2 tbsp apricots, dried
- 1 cup blueberries, frozen (we use frozen, but fresh are fine too ofc!)
Optional
- coconut flakes (for garnish)
Instructions
- Rinse the quinoa well (that's important) get a pot, add quinoa, soy milk and water. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a low heat.½ cup quinoa, ½ cup water, 1 cup soy milk
- Now add the spices: cardamom, anise, cinnamon, sugar and a pinch of salt.1 star anise, 3 green cardamom pods, ½ tsp cinnamon, Salt to taste, 1 tsp sugar
- Cut the almonds and apricots into slices and throw them into the pot as well. Hold back a few of each for garnish.2 tbsp almonds, 2 tbsp apricots, dried
- Let everything simmer for about 15 minutes until the quinoa is soft and the liquid is absorbed.
- Meanwhile, grab a pan and throw in the blueberries. Let them simmer until they resemble marmalade. That’ll take about 5 minutes.1 cup blueberries, frozen
- Once the quinoa is done, fish out the anise star and cardamom pods.
- Alrighty, now it’s time to make like the Avengers and assemble: grab a bowl and add the quinoa. Pour a little more soy milk over your concoction. Now add the blueberry sauce. Sprinkle a few more almond and apricot slices and perhaps a couple of coconut flakes to finish it off.coconut flakes
- Enjoy!
Absolutely love this recipe, it’s so tasty and nutritious, plus really keeps me full for the morning. Thanks team, keep up the great work
Thank you Kitty! That just made my day!
This seems to be high in sugar. Too much sugar bad?
Hi Cynthia,
I personally think it’s fine since it only contains 1/2 tsp sugar per serving. But yes you’d have natural sugar from the other ingredients like blueberries.
My favourite porridge for breakfast. Tastes so good thanks Dave
Woop, awesome Gail!! So happy to hear it!
Hi,
I’m about to start the 30-day challenge, I reviewed the material and am excited to get started. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to try a vegetarian diet. I like the open mind approach set forth in your literature so I can make it flexible enough to allure my boys into it without feeling bad for not being 100% vegetarian from the get go (for their meals). Question: I was never big on breakfast and although I enjoy yogurt and milk derived prods I was never able to drink milk. I’ll try “Quinoa Porridge with Blueberries” (soy milk) and “Kat’s Overnight Oats in a Jar” (almond milk) as is but are there other liquids you’d recommend as milk replacements? 🙂 Thanks for putting this together, cheers.
Hey Rodrei! Great to have you with us. Sounds like a good way to start (for the boys) – bring it in slowly, introduce awesome food and help them see they’re not ‘missing out’ on things. With the milk replacements, in addition to soy and almond that you mentioned, we’ve also been drinking oat milk, cashew milk and coconut milk recently. I especially like the cashew milk. There are various soy joghurts around too, but I’m not a massive fan of them to be honest! Have a strange aftertaste. Good luck with starting the challenge, Rodrei!
Wow, This looks yummy! I eat quinoa in all different ways but never thought of doing this. I wish i can try today but will wait until weekend since i need to get the fresh blueberries for this. Thanks for Sharing interesting vegetarian recipes.
You’re welcome, Parul! You could use frozen berries as well for this recipe. Actually the ones you see in the photos were frozen and the just quickly heated and lightly mashed in a pan 🙂
Looks sooo great! sure i’m gonna try soon!
by the way, a big thanks to all the team, i’ve juste discoverded this blog and it’s amazing, everything is so simply explained (with humour :)) and finally simple and QUICK recipes for vegetarians! i was getting a little lost into two many advices, websites, books…now I’m gonna stick with this blog, it’s so complete.
The adventure begun with you high protein meal plan, that I’ve planned to try this week 🙂
thanks a lot!
Wow, thank you Nida!! That’s such a huge compliment – and we’re equally happy to have you here :). Yep it’s a jungle out there (one we far too often get lost in ourselves), so we really do try to bring everything together in a stress-free way. Enjoy the meal plan – and if you any questions – just ask!
This looks like such a healthy, filling breakfast. Love that blueberry drizzle! Yum!