Good To-Go Mexican Quinoa

I’ve never been a quinoa fan, but this dish surprised me

It seems like I always have a few “leftover” backpacking meals in the pantry. They come in handy on the occasional bachelor’s night. Recently, I found myself home alone with nobody to make or bring me dinner so I broke out this one. I’ve never really enjoyed quinoa, but the rest of this meal had seemed intriguing, so it had made a recent purchase list….but my quinoa thing had kept it from actually reaching the trail. Well, it was time to find out what this meal really tasted like.

Of course, this gave me a chance to break in my new Evernew 0.9L pot set with frying pan lid as well.

I boiled up 15 oz. of water in the pot, mixed in the meal, covered it, and looked for 20 minutes to kill while the meal rehydrated.

Reading about the ingredients on Good To-Go’s website killed some of that time. Let’s see….quinoa, black beans, winter squash, corn, onion, butternut squash, tomato flakes, poblano pepper, and cacao powder and a bunch of yummy spices to make a mole sauce. Sounded very intriguing indeed. 6.7 oz. and 700 calories for the double portion….not bad.

Here’s what it looked like 20 minutes later:

Pretty, ain’t it? I like a dish with color- that usually means some good spices and veggies.

I stirred it up and let it cool for a couple of minutes and then dug in. And I was very pleasantly surprised! The quinoa wasn’t mushy, and the flavors were everywhere. I’ll have to admit, it’s REALLY good. Quinoa is high in protein and gluten-free, and if all the other ingredients in this dish can make quinoa taste that good, consider me converted. Chef Jen nailed the flavors on this one.

The 2 person portion was almost more than I could eat, which means that on the trail it would be just right for one hungry hiker at the end of the day.

I do believe that this meal will earn a place in my pack on a future hike.

Grade: A-