Serves 6.
Ingredients
1-1/2 cups quinoa (I use red quinoa), rinsed
3 cups chicken stock
12 oz flavorful chicken sausage, sliced (I use sun-dried tomato with basil sausage)
1 small onion, diced
6 sun-dried tomato halves, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 cups diced zucchini (1 giant zucchini)
3 cups roughly chopped mushrooms
Fresh black pepper, to taste
Directions
In a 4- or 5-quart slow cooker, add the quinoa, chicken stock, sausage, onion, tomato, thyme, oregano and garlic. Cover and cook on HIGH for 2-1/2 hours, or on LOW for 5 hours.
If you have cooked on LOW, turn the cooker to HIGH and add the mushrooms and zucchini right on top of the quinoa. Do not stir it in; cover and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes.
Stir the vegetables into the quinoa, cover, and cook for an additional 15 minutes.
Then, cook partially covered for 15 minutes more, or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Gently fluff the quinoa. Taste, and season with black pepper.
Serve hot, or transfer to containers and allow to cool completely before refrigerating or freezing.