RSSWHAT THE HECK IS QUINOA?
March 2, 2008
You’ve seen it on the Superfoods lists, but just how strange and complicated will it be to learn to use it? Is it super enough to bother learning to use it?
It is as tricky as rice, cooks faster, and is great. You know I would never exaggerate how easy something is, since one of my driving forces is to spend the least possible time dealing with food. Do you know that quinoa comes closer than any food, vegetable or animal, in supplying all the necessary nutrients for life?
Ancient grain of the Incas
Quinoa comes from plants of the Chenopodium family.
Pronounced KEEN-wah, this is an interesting grain in a few different ways. Not truly a grain, but the fruit of an annual plant, it was considered sacred and served as a basic element in the diet of the Incas. To the ancient people of Peru, it was “the mother of all grains”. I love to hear the history of food. From Wikipedia, I learned that the Inca emperor would sow the first plants each season using tools made of gold.
It looks like tiny golden-beige spheres, twice the size of couscous, maybe ¼ the size of a beebee. In fact, it could replace bulgur or couscous in any recipe and in my house, it does. It’s at the Bulk Barn or in the rice section of the bigger grocery stores. Though it’s recommended to refrigerate it because it can spoil in a month or so, I store it with my dry goods in plastic containers and have not had a problem.
A true Superfood
The picture above comes from the Living in Peru website, where you’ll find an amazing history of this plant, and a selection of recipes (links at the bottom of the page).
What makes it unusual is that it is a grain that offers a complete protein; unlike most plant-derived protein sources, this one contains all the essential building blocks to make protein in your body. It does not require that you eat it with another, complete protein to provide the amino acid, lysine that most grains lack. It is higher in protein and unsaturated fat, and lower in carbs than other grains. It also offers more iron, potassium, and B vitamins. It is a nutrition powerhouse.
Sites To Know : Cooking with Kurma
Kurma and calf.
I love Cooking With Kurma for vegetarian recipes. Kurma Dasa is an Australian TV show host. He practices a Bhakti-yoga lifestyle and that alone makes his photograph-rich site most interesting. It’s a great resource, though I have yet to find asafetida powder at any store (I am told that it is an Indian spice, available at Indian grocery store).
I am not vegetarian because I feel much stronger when I eat meat occasionally, though I try to eat less red meat. These vegetarian recipes are simply wonderful, a long way from the wet hay field run-off that can come to mind with vegetarian cooking.
The words “stylish” and “sumptuous” are not often associated with pure vegetarian cuisine, but Kurma makes it so. How’s this for a great sounding recipe? Roasted Antipasti Vegetable Platter with Lemony Herb Pesto. With recipes this good, I’ve learned to be thankful that my husband and kids don’t eat what I eat. More for me.
His blog is wonderful. He travels the world, cooking, writing, and discussing tools, techniques, and recipes. You can remember George Harrison, visit India’s holy places, and see the spice markets of Bolivia. I find it a great escape, a visit into a fascinating life.
Kurma playing his mrdanga drum.
Cooking quinoa is easy
It cooks just like any other grain, in a pot of boiling water. The outer coating can be a little bitter. To remove it, pour the quinoa into a dry non-stick fry pan and stir it round over medium heat for 10min or so. It will make a crackling sound but the beads will not pop all over your stove. Some cooks suggest you just rinse it till the water no longer looks cloudy or soapy, but I prefer the stovetop method. For me, it just works very well. Then rinse it, and pour it into a pot with water and cook it. In simmering water, it will cook in 20 min. , 1c quinoa to 2c water.
Since I rarely eat it plain, I often pour the crackled and rinsed beads right into my soup pot and let them simmer in there. I find it has even less taste than rice if you can imagine, but that’s a good thing because it disappears into soups and salads. It’s kind of pretty in a salad, because it has an almost translucent quality when it’s cooked, like delicate beige pearls.
Recipes
If you search FoodNetwork.com , Cooking With Kurma, or even Google, you’ll find many recipes. My recent favorites have come, oddly enough, from the Heath and Fitness pages of MSN.
At MSN Health and Fitness, the article TheTop Secret Superfood
has some great recipes. I loved the Quinoa as Salad, with goat cheese and asparagus. At the end of the article, under Related Recipes, you’ll find a Quinoa, Mango, and Black Bean salad that was also very good. There are 7 good recipes here . I’m doing the Vegetable Quinoa Curry today.
Comments
13 Responses to “WHAT THE HECK IS QUINOA?”
Got something to say? I hope so.
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A Greener Tea
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Hey there girlie
I have hing in my cupboard, should have given you some. Hing is another word for asofoetida powder that I was introduced to by some Kashmiri friends and I use it in one or two recipes. Quite a vinegary flavour from a powder and I really don’t notice when I forget to add it but that could be because there are about 28 other flavours happening in these recipes. And yes you should have no problem finding at an Indian grocery store or an Asian one.
Quinoa is fabulous and if you live close to the border you can purchase it at about half the cost of what you pay for it it in Canada (although it is worth every penny
Hi there,
We have just added quinoa to our diet this past year. I love it and so do the children. I must admit I am looking for recipes as I tend to eat it plain and although it suits me it doesn’t suit everone. I have tried to get my parents loving it but they find it tasteless. I will forward them your blog and the Kurma website.
Thanks for the information about Kurma as I hadn’t heard of him.
By the way, I have been pronuncing it “Kwinoa” so will have to change to your suggestion.
Hi, Women!
@Gina : that is the funniest thing that you have this powder I’d never heard of in your cupboard; with your description of vinegary powder, well… we can just leave it in your cupboard.
@Holly : it is good, and easy stuff to work with; I did do the Vegetable Curry and it was great. My son tasted it and thought it was tasteless, which is amazing because there are so many flavors in there, as Gina says. I didn’t find it tasteless at all.
I’m going to look into this Quinoa. Maddison has proclaimed that she is now a vegetarian. Emagine, our little carnivore, going without meat. So we had a big talk about needing protein in your diet. With her allergy to peanuts, eggs and soya, it’s going to be difficult for her. I don’t want her to get sick, cause she is very determined to do this. So I will check this out. Thanks Christine. Good info. Nat
Hi, Nat,
What is it about teenagers needing to become vegetarian? She’s the 5th one I can think of. They seem to do fine but I agree they need to get organized about understanding complete and incomplete protein and how you make a complete protein.
She can do dairy, right? So yogurt, milk, etc are OK?
Who knows, maybe she’ll get so tired of grains and beans that she’ll eat fish now and again.
There are probably some good websites on the topic too, since it seems to be a teen thing.
Hi Christine,
Glad to have discovered your site! (Paula Begoun recommends it on her most recent update).
Converting to vegetarism isn’t just a teenager thing. Since September 2006 my family and I switched to a vegan diet. Never in a million years did I ever think we, upper middle class white- collar workers would ever go down this road but our decision was an environmental one. Our family has always put the environment first, and the stage global warming is at now has put our kids and us on high alert. We were already making the organic choice for groceries, and trying to buy local but when I kept coming across research about the phenomenal impact the meat and diary industry had on the environment, I felt I couldn’t continue being part of it. (see link http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment )
It hasn’t been the easiest ”instant” lifestyle switch (my husband plays contact hockey three times a week and boy, do the guys love to razz him) but it sure is easier than suddenly telling the kids we’re selling the two cars and opting out of extracurricular carpooling for bus passes.
No one in the family was upset with the decision. We believe that people can’t just say they’re concerned about the planet, they have to do something, REALLY do something, and do it fast. Going vegan has given us a feeling of empowerment that even your everyday average suburban family can make a difference.
Theresa,
Thanks for your very thoughtful comment. I knew that livestock rearing contributed to greenhouse gases but I was a little shocked to read the actual numbers from the link you provided.
Even if meat consumption were reduced, the impact would be significant. There are so many reasons, even on a personal level. I must admit that my sharp decline in eating meat came from an anti-cancer perspective.
Your comment illustrates so well that lifestyle changes can be made in families. It does take time and there will be resistance at first. Meat is just what we’re used to building a meal around. As long as you keep at it gradually, pretty soon the whole family is making very different choices without really noticing the loss of the sugar rockets and hamburgers.
Thanks so much for writing in and providing us with the article link above.
http://www.recipezaar.com has some great practical info on quinoa recipes and preparation.
Upon reading very interesting blogs about Quinoa, I was thrilled to see that more people are considering it in their diets. Being from Peru where the grain is part of our dietary staple. I must shed a little bit of light in sharing information. Quinoa is the complete package, it has amino acids and proteins compared to those of meat. It tops soy beans in being a complete protein source. Plus it is easier on the body to digest than sometimes soy can be or cause allergies. This is why so many vegetarians are opting for the nutty grain. Quinoa is very versatile, yes it does not have a distinct or overpowering flavor which makes it ideal for any dish in letting you add your own culinary palette . Quinoa can be used to make desserts, entrees, use instead of rice you can make a risotto, and in the powder form to make breads, muffins etc… My suggestion is to look at recipe websites from the Andean countries of Peru, Bolilvia, Ecuador where the grain grows and comes from. Buen Provecho!
Great information, Moni.
I was interested in what you said about adding the powder form of quinoa to breads… Do you mean just add the uncooked grains, like you would add wheat germ ? I add it to so many dishes like chili, spaghetti, salads, but I never thought of adding it to a bread. What a good idea.
Hi Christine,
Another Paula Begoun referral here. I just fixed my first Quinoa last night, and was amazed at the possibilites it presents for my diet. Planning my diet is complicated by blood sugar issues, and it’s important that I control and keep my carb and protein consumption balanced. I’m not prepared to become a vegetarian, which would make planning my diet more complicated than it already is, but I have been trying to introduce more vegetable proteins, and reduce the amount of red meat I eat. Soy is a big part of my diet, and gets a little boring at times, so it’s going to be nice to be able to mix it up a bit with Quinoa.
I seasoned yesterday’s Quinoa with miso, rice vinegar, green onion, and shitake mushrooms. It was quite savory, and very satisfying. Because of it’s nondescript flavor, I’ve already got plans for everything from Asian and Mediterranean flavors to Southwestern. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe resources, as it’s going to help cut down the amount of time I would have spent searching for information.
Hi,
I have copied a UK ready meal that I love very much, where the texture of quinoa is the interesting part - roast some butternut squash and beetroot until cooked (1hr or so), serve the sliced beetroot and sccoped squash with boiled quinoa, a sharp cheese (goats’ is best) and a bitter salad such as rocket - full of superfoods, but if you cook your butternut with butter and pepper, very flavourfull and doesn’t taste too healthy!
I was a ‘teenage vegetarian’ who converted when I first went to University. I kept it up for more than 10 years, but gradually started adding fish to my diet when I started travelling for work (do you know how difficult it can be to get a vegetarian dish in a French restaurant?), so it may not just be a fad, but a lifelong commitment!
Heather,
That recipe looks outstanding. I love goat cheese. I’m going to buy the ingredients today. About the presentation, are the ingredients served separately on the bed of lettuce, or somehow mixed all together?
I don’t often see rocket greens at the store. I wonder about a little watercress. It’s fairly bitter and I’m always looking for ways to include it into my diet.
I agree that traveling and eating the way you like is impossible. I’ve even gotten so that I dislike going out to eat altogether. The only exceptions are Thai or natural-food restaurants.
I also eat some meat because I seem to feel a little stronger when I do, but no question vegetables/grains/fruits are the way to feel clean and light.
Thanks for commenting!