While perusing the bulk containers during my latest pilgrimage to the Lexington Co-op I came across Quinoa. I have been dying to get my hands on some but the on-line prices are a little ridiculous since you have to buy 100+ ounce bundled packages. The price is still a little high in bulk but it is prepared in a two to one ratio of liquid to Quinoa and it doubles when ready to eat. The Co-op had both Red and Traditional Quinoa so I got a bit of both. You get a lot of food for you money with Quinoa and a lot of unique nutritional qualities too. Quinoa contains complete protein meaning that it has all 9 essential amino acids. These amino acids are also very well balanced.
You will have to do some math to figure out the nutrition in your personal serving size but ¼ cup is what I would consider a nice sized single serving. Publicly available data states that a ¼ cup (~40 grams) contains 160 to 170 calories with somewhere around 6 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber and 2 grams of fat.
There is a lot more to know about this ancient grain. I posted links for two web sites at the bottom of this article. I would encourage you to read about the more romantic details of this ancient food of the Incas. Quinoa.net also has a bunch of history and recipe ideas to enjoy Quinoa.
Today we will be making a toasted Quinoa super-food breakfast cereal.
RECIPE:
- ¼ cup Quinoa (rinsed)
- ½ cup water
- Blueberries, Pomegranate Arils, Almonds, Honey and Skim Milk.
- Bananas, Oats, Greek Yogurt, Strawberries, Flax Meal and any other super-food you can get your hands on are all optional. And great options they are.
TECHNIQUE:
There are a couple of things you can do with Quinoa. It can be ground in a blender and used in baked goods or in smoothies. You can use the flour to make pasta or combined with wheat flour to make cookies and breads. The easiest way to consume Quinoa is to simply prepare it like rice or oatmeal.
Quinoa needs to be rinsed when you get it home unless it has been pre-rinsed.
Several recipes suggest pan toasting the Quinoa first and after trying it untoasted and toasted I strongly recommend pan toasting Quinoa before boiling. Simply put the Quinoa in a frying pan over medium heat and continuously turn for around five minutes until it smells toasty and turns light brown.
While this is toasting you can begin you boil your water. Use two parts water to every one part Quinoa. Dump the pan toasted Quinoa into the water and bring to a boil. Immediately turn heat down, cover and simmer for up to 15 minutes or until all of the water is absorbed. It will fluff like rice. Pan toasting helps the Quinoa to retain a bit of crunchiness and enhances the flavor a lot. It kind of reminds me of preparing rice. Once it is complete it will look translucent and the germ will separate from the seed.
I used traditional Quinoa but it looks reddish brown since I pan toasted before simmering.
You can eat it plain or jazz it up with extras as I have. Some recipes suggest substituting vegetable or chicken stock for water if you will be enjoying it as a side dish (or main) for dinner.
A quick Quinoa smoothie that I enjoyed today was made with 3 tbsp Quinoa, 1 banana, 4 large strawberries, ¼ cup greek yogurt and ¼ cup skim milk. First I pulverized the Quinoa in the blender with a splash of milk. Add the remaining ingredients and blend for one to two minutes until smoothed to preference.
To find out more about the goodness of Quinoa you can reference two of my favorite web sites, Nutritiondata.com and Whfoods.com. They both have in depth nutritional profiles that you can look at. Quinoa.net also has a lot of info too. Here are the links for nutrition data from Whfoods.com and Quinoa.net:
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=143
http://www.quinoa.net/199.html
The terms of use on Nutritiondata.com got my head spinning where I was afraid to even think about their website so I don’t know if I can hyperlink them. (I feel that I have to say that this is not a recommendation but that I am merely informing you that there may not be a website called Nutritiondata.com which may or may not be one of the best online resources for nutritional data and may or may not have amazing graphical representations of nutritional value and may or may not be really, really cool.)
