quinoa with green beans and chicken in plum sauce

As I promised yesterday, here is an easy-peasy dinner to make with your new plum sauce! The plum sauce has enough complexity and enough different ingredients that you get to take tonight off and create dinner out of just five ingredients, but it will taste like you slaved all day. Lucky you!

I used the plum sauce that I made out of a very small percentage   a tiny little dent in the pile   some of the plums we graciously received from a friend. You can use my plum sauce recipe, of course, or you can buy plum sauce in a jar. It should be on the Asian/Ethnic Foods aisle of your market, and if it isn't, it will surely be in any Asian market.

All of my kids ate this up... and the little one asked for seconds, and then asked for thirds! Will wonders never cease. Of course, I must add the caveat that he had spent the day at karate camp. He needed to replace many many burned calories, and he was also interested in consuming some vegetables in the hopes of someday being as strong as Casey, one of the camp instructors and my son's new idol.

So, combine a day full of exercise, one strong and fun teenager to look up to, and some delicious plum sauce, and any kid will eat his green beans.

As a matter of fact, they ate it all up before I got a single picture. Sorry!!

Quinoa with green beans and chicken in plum sauce
(serves four)

1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/2 pound green beans, rinsed, ends trimmed, and cut into 2 inch lengths
olive oil
1/2 pound chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup Asian plum sauce

Bring 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Add green beans and cook for about 5 minutes, until they are tender-crisp.

Meanwhile, heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Add oil to hot pan.

When the beans are ready, lift them out of the boiling water with tongs, allowing the water to continue boiling. Shake excess water off each tong-full of beans, and toss them into the wok. (Be careful, the water droplets left on the beans will spit in the hot oil).

Add the quinoa to the pot of boiling water, and turn the heat down to the lowest setting. Cover the pot and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the chicken breasts to the green beans, and stir fry until the chicken is cooked through. Add the plum sauce and stir until it is all coated.

Transfer the quinoa to a serving bowl, top with the green bean/chicken mixture, and serve warm.