Christmas is coming to town! With the breeze of winter and fairy lights, Christmas is the festival of joy and happiness that people are looking forward to. Many families take this opportunity to meet each other, sharing gifts and having special dishes and drinks such as turkey, Christmas pudding, and eggnog together. Heritage Brand, Thailand’s

Christmas is coming to town! With the breeze of winter and fairy lights, Christmas is the festival of joy and happiness that people are looking forward to. Many families take this opportunity to meet each other, sharing gifts and having special dishes and drinks such as turkey, Christmas pudding, and eggnog together.

Heritage Brand, Thailand’s leading brand for nuts, dried fruits, and other healthy ingredients for baking and snacking, would like to introduce an easy-to-follow recipe called “Stir-fried Quinoa served with Spiced Roasted Chicken”. Quinoa, often described as a superfood, is an excellent source of protein and antioxidants. Being high in calcium but low in cholesterol, quinoa is an ideal option for people with lactose intolerance and with health-conscious. Moreover, this recipe is rich in health benefits from pistachios that can help nourish your skin, raw walnuts helps improve the digestive system, and pumpkin seeds promote your heart health. Let’s begin with preparing ingredients.

Ingredients for Stir-fried Quinoa with Mixed Nuts and Seeds

1. 1 tbsp. butter
2. ¼ onion
3. 2 cloves of garlic
4. 2 tbsp. Heritage Raw Pistachios
5. 2 tbsp. Heritage Raw Walnuts
6. 1 tbsp. Heritage Raw Pumpkin seeds
7. 1 cup of cooked Heritage Quinoa
8. Pomegranate for topping (optional)
9. Parsley 

Ingredients for Roasted Chicken

1. 2 chicken drumsticks
2. 1 chicken thigh
3. 1 tsp. ground turmeric
4. ½ tsp. ground cumin
5. ½ tsp. garlic and salt powder
6. ½ tsp. black pepper
7. 2 tbsp. honey
8. 2 tsp. rice bran oil

There are two ways to cook quinoa: cooking in a rice cooker and cooking on the stove.

Cooking in a rice cooker: rinse the quinoa and drain the water. Then add 1 cup of quinoa, 2 cups of water (1: 2 ratio), and a pinch of salt into the rice cooker before pressing a cooking button. It takes about 20 minutes until the quinoa is cooked. Use a fork to gently stir the quinoa and set it aside to cool down.

Cooking on the stove: rinse the quinoa and drain the water. Then put 1 cup of quinoa, 2 cups of water (1: 2 ratio), and a pinch of salt into a pot and set it on the stove using medium heat. Boil it for 5 minutes until the water is boiling, then reduce to low heat and cook for another 15 minutes until the water is dry and the quinoa is cooked. After removing from the heat, use a fork to gently stir the quinoa a d set it aside to warm.

How to roast nuts (for stir-frying with quinoa)

1. Heat oven to 150 ºC (turn on both the top and bottom heat so that nuts are cooked evenly).
2. Spread the Heritage nuts including raw pistachios, raw walnuts, raw pumpkin seeds on the baking tray and roast for 8 – 10 minutes. Then let it cool.

Note: Each type of nuts requires different baking times, depending on their weights and the oven in each house.

How to Roast Chicken

1. Mix all spices which are ground turmeric, ground cumin, garlic salt powder, black pepper, and honey.
2. Add rice bran oil in the chicken bowl followed by 3 tsp of the mixture of spices, knead all over the chicken, and leave to marinate for about 10 minutes.
3. Fry the chicken until turning brown then put it in the oven at 180 ºC for 15-20 minutes.

How to stir-fry quinoa with nuts and seeds

1. Heat the pan on low heat, add butter, onion, garlic and stir fry them until the onion is cooked then followed by 1 teaspoon of the spice mixture and cooked quinoa, and stir-fry until yellow.
2. Turn off the heat, add all grains and parsley and combine them.
3. Serve with spiced roasted chicken, sprinkle with pomegranate, and top with parsley.

If you are planning to cook special dishes for this Christmas Day, you can find premium ingredients from Heritage Group at leading department stores and supermarkets nationwide, or order online at Shopee, Lazada, JD Central, and Line ID: @Heritagethailand. For more information, please contact 02-813-0954-5 or follow our activities and news at www.heritagethailand.com, www.facebook.com/Heritagegroupth, and IG: heritage_thailand.