Always in search of new ways to use quinoa, I’ve run across a few ways to combine quinoa, corn, and avocado in a soup. Here’s my version, which turned out quite tasty, and with a little kick! Leftovers made great lunch all week – just add the avocado at the last minute, or mash it into the soup if you’ll be eating it later in the week.

Southwestern Quinoa Soup
serves 4

2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. cumin
1 cup of quinoa (I often use red, but white works fine)
1 tsp. salt
4 cups of vegetable stock, homemade is best
1 large, dried chipotle pepper
1 cup or roasted corn, frozen of fresh
1 Tbs. of your favorite hot sauce (I used sriracha)
1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
handful of greens (I used baby arugula this time)
pepper to taste
1 avocado, sliced and salted
1 lime, quartered

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and fry until the onion is soft, and the garlic is lightly browned. Add the cumin, stirring to coat the onion. Add the vegetable stock, quinoa, dried chili and salt. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and keep covered, until the quinoa softens and sprouts “tails” – about 12 minutes. Stir in the roasted corn, greens, hot sauce, and cilantro, stir, and heat through. Remove the soup from heat and ladle it into four bowls. Garnish each bowl with 1/4 of the avocado, sliced, fresh cilantro, a wedge of lime, and black pepper.

I had some leftover carrots and zucchini, so I lightly steamed the carrots and gave them both a toss in the skillet with a tad of olive oil, salt, and a generous pinch of cumin.