Quinoa with roasted carrot, chickpeas & feta
Orange juice, grated ginger, pressed garlic, honey, and ground cumin make the marinade. It gets poured over sliced carrots, chickpeas, and red onion wedges on a baking sheet, and everything roasts at 200°C for 20 minutes.
While the oven works, quinoa cooks on the stovetop. The bowl comes together fast: roasted vegetables still warm from the sheet pan, raw orange slices for brightness, crumbled feta for salt. 733 calories, 100g of carbs, and 17g of fiber from one tray and one pot.
Ingredients
- quinoa 3 ounces
- carrots 2
- chickpeas 0.25 cup
- red onion 0.5
- orange 1
- ginger 1 slice
- garlic 1 clove
- honey 1 tablespoon
- ground cumin 1 teaspoon
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- feta cheese, crumbled 1 ounce
Method
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Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C).
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Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the packaging until it’s tender.
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Slice the carrots, rinse the chickpeas in a colander with cold water, drain them and pat them dry with kitchen paper. Cut the red onion into wedges. Place the carrots, chickpeas and red onion on the prepared baking sheet.
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Halve the orange. Squeeze the juice from one half into a bowl and set it aside. Peel the other half and slice it; set the slices aside. Grate the piece of ginger and press the garlic clove.
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Mix the orange juice with the ginger, garlic, honey, cumin powder, oil, pepper and salt.
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Pour the marinade over the vegetables and chickpeas on the baking sheet and toss to coat. Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
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Serve the cooked quinoa with the roasted vegetables, add the orange slices and scatter the feta cheese over the dish.
Leave the carrots in the oven for the full 20 minutes at 200°C. A 2024 food chemistry study found that baking carrots at this temperature increased total carotenoid bioaccessibility 8.91-fold compared to raw. The carrots in that study were baked without oil, so the olive oil in your marinade gives the fat-soluble carotenoids an additional advantage.
Baking breaks down the plant cell walls that trap carotenoids inside raw carrot tissue. In the same study, beta-carotene bioaccessibility jumped 57.2-fold after 20 minutes at 210°C compared to the same carrots eaten raw. This recipe roasts at 200°C for the same duration with olive oil in the marinade, making the study’s finding a conservative estimate.
Benítez-González et al., Food & Function, 2024 · DOIWhy This Works
Behind this recipe
Why do I need to pat the chickpeas dry?
Surface moisture steams instead of roasting, which prevents the crispy exterior that makes roasted chickpeas worth eating. Draining and patting them dry gives the oven heat direct contact with the chickpea skin, so they brown and crisp rather than steam in their own water.
Can I use a different grain instead of quinoa?
Couscous or bulgur work well and cook in a similar time. The macros will shift: couscous has less protein and fiber per serving than quinoa, while bulgur keeps more fiber but takes slightly longer. The roasted vegetables and marinade are the star here, so the grain base is flexible.
What does the orange juice do in the marinade?
The acid balances the sweetness from the honey and adds brightness to the earthy cumin. It also helps the marinade coat the vegetables evenly. The fresh orange slices served on top echo the same citrus flavor from a completely different angle: raw, cold, and sweet against the warm roasted vegetables.
