What is quinoa and how do you pronounce it? It is pronounced Keen-wah – I said it wrong until I heard someone say it on the food network years ago. Technically quinoa is not a true grain. It is the seed of the Chenolodium or Goosefoot plant. It is often used as a grain or substituted for grains because of its cooking characteristics. Quinoa comes in a wide variety of colors – white, pink, brown, red and even black depending on the variety. White was the only color I had tried before buying the red. This was also my first time cooking it at home.
I bought about a cup of red quinoa from the bins at my local grocery store. The first thing I noticed was that it was like Easter grass – it freakin’ stuck to everything – the bag, my hands, the scoop, etc.
I let the quinoa sit in my pantry for a week or two because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to make with it – then I finally decided to just cook it and go from there.
Most quinoa sold commercially in North America has been processed to remove the bitter resin-like coating called “saponin”, but a good washing is still recommended before cooking.
Have you ever tried to wash Easter grass? Yeah, not an easy task. I put a handful into my fine mesh strainer and it took me a good 5 minutes to get the grain-like seeds out of the double layers of mesh. Note: I need a single layer fine mesh strainer if I’m going to continue to cook quinoa on a regular basis. After that fiasco, I had the brilliant idea of just soaking the quinoa in a measuring cup and then draining through thick paper towels – that worked fine, minus the quinoa holding on for dear life. It adhered to everything – the measuring cup, the rubber spatula, every layer of paper towel, my hand, my face – you think I’m kidding? I’m still finding the stuff in random places that make me go…huh?
I did manage to salvage most of the quinoa using the 5 second rule ;). I got it added to a pot of boiling water – 1 cup quinoa to 1 1/4 cup water seemed to do the trick. Some cooking instructions say add to boiling water, others say to soak it, bring to boil, and then lower heat like you would for rice. I added mine to the boiling water – let it boil for a few minutes and then turned the heat down and covered it for about 15 minutes. As the quinoa cooks, the outer germ around each seed twists outward – forming a little white, spiral tail, which is attached to the kernel (It’s alive – ha!) The seed itself is pretty soft, but the tail adds some crunch – creating a great texture, especially for salads.
I cooked up a couple of chicken breast tenders with some olive oil, garlic gold and flat leaf parsley and then I created a dressing.
Dressing Ingredients – (2 Servings)
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate
1 Teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 Teaspoon Sierra Nevada Porter Spicy Mustard
1/4 Teaspoon Honey
Ground Pepper – about 5 twists
I grabbed a bunch of spinach, added the warm chicken, goat cheese and 3-4 big spoonfuls of the red quinoa and then tossed in the dressing.
A cup of quinoa really makes a lot – similar to rice once you fluff it up with a fork. I put a container of leftover red quinoa in the fridge and the next day decided to make a different kind of salad for more lunch options.
I grabbed a white onion, flat leaf parsley, celery, carrot, and zucchini and started chopping while I cooked a small chicken breast.
I shredded the cooked chicken breast and then started on the mayo mix.
I used some light mayo, spicy brown mustard, salt, pepper, garlic gold nuggets and some lemon juice. I mixed up my chicken salad and then added several huge scoops of the red quinoa and mixed it some more. I then spooned the mixture into whole wheat pita halves.
The only thing that would have completed the pita sandwich would have been avocado. Now I know why my girlfriend Jess adds quinoa/chicken salad into her weekly menu planning – It’s delicious!
One last photo… because yes, it was that good!
Question: Have you ever tried cooking quinoa? Any tips, tricks or recipes you want to share?
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I get my quinoa at Trader Joe’s and cook it in chicken broth for a little more flavor. My favorite way to eat it is to make a salad with quinoa, cucumber, onion, pepper, tomato, feta and some Italian dressing. I could eat that just about every day. The other way I’ve eaten it is to cook it in water and then use it like oatmeal – a little milk and brown sugar on top for breakfast. It’s a very versatile item!
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I was on feta overload for a long time, but I think I’m ready to get back to it – the cucumber/italian combo sounds really good – next up I’ll try something sweet. Thanks!
Love quinoa. I eat it all the time. I make a big batch on a Sunday and eat it for lunch or breakfast along with veggies. YUM. I like the red quinoa but prefer the other kind. This recipe looks tasty.
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That is what my friend Jess does – a huge batch on the weekends – I’m thinking I will start doing that too!
I’ve been cooking quinoa for quite a while now too. A lot of times I’ll also use it as a substitute for rice in dishes too. Sometimes I’ll eat plain with some salt and pepper.
One of my favorites is to do a quinoa black bean salad. 1c quinoa cooked (measured before cooked), 1 can black beans, 1/2c corn, 1/2c diced red onion (sometimes other things too, like diced tomatoes or diced red bell pepper). Dressing is 1tbsp oil, 1tsp mexican oregano, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste, and finish with 1-2 tsp of lime juice. Top with cubed avocado (optional) and its a good cold salad.
I also like it because leftovers can be used later as vegetarian enchilada filling.
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Your black bean/quinoa salad sounds delicious and I could see where it would make a good veggie enchilada filling, yum! Thanks Nick!
I use a simple recipe from Cooking Light called “Cinco do Quinoa” or something like that. I have no idea why that is the name, but it’s just chopped onions and garlic sauted and then cooked with the quinoa. Very yummy.
I have a random question – Are you still using your fancy vegetable slicer thingy? I can’t remember what it was called.
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Hi Paige – Yes I just used the slicer yesterday to make zucchini pasta. Here’s a link to my post about it with the amazon link. http://foodiddy.com/?p=426
Yay! Red Quinoa! It is so good — a little nuttier, I think, than the plain white (which is what I usually buy). And yes, quinoa chicken salad is a staple in my house… I make mine with ff feta, grapes, and newmans own lite balsamic vinagrette; scallions and celery… it is sooooo good. best part about quinoa is it has a TON of protein in it, so it is very filling!
Fun! Now I want to make some for my lunches next week!
I have never ever cooked quinoa but I find it to be delicious in mah belly!
I just recently started cooking with quinoa, and I like it a lot. I am trying to eat a low Glycemic diet and quinoa is has a low index and load, not mention that it is a complete protein. I have been using it in anything that I might use rice or couscous for. I recently made a casserole with it that also had broccoli, cheddar cheese and Madras curry powder (http://figsandartichokes.blogspot.com/2011/01/quinoa-and-broccoli.html). I think I might add some chicken next time.