I sauteed some finely chopped white onion with about 4 cloves of garlic. Once the onions were translucent, I added about 3/4 cup of quinoa. Then, some cumin and cayenne pepper to the mix. One this was all mixed up, I added about 2 cups of vegetable stock and let it come to a boil. Then, the simmering began.
I was thinking maybe 15 minutes for this, but the quinoa was just tough for some reason. I don't cook with quinoa very often, so I may have had the texture wrong, but I knew that I wanted it to be cooked a bit more. It was soaking up the liquid like a rock star, so I kept adding 1/4 cup here, a 1/4 cup there until it was the texture I was looking for. This lasted for about 30 minutes total, but it wasn't a big deal because I started it much earlier than everything else. I guess my mind knew something it wasn't really telling me during the cooking process.
It made a lot of salad, let me tell you. Plus, it was extremely filling. All good things in my book. There was enough for me to make a meal out of it the next day. And to jazz it up, I added the leftover grilled nectarine salsa we had from our fish tacos the next day - it was delicious (and just as filling!)