Quinoa

Red and white quinoa - cooked

Quinoa has become a lot more 'known' and accessible over the past few years but I still come across people who have never tasted (or cooked) it so, given it's wonderful qualities, I thought it was worth a separate comment. My technical and nutritional knowledge of quinoa is no greater than what any of us can read on Wikipedia so here's the link in case you want to know more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa. For those of you who aren't that interested in reading up on the ins and outs of the grain, briefly, it is an ancient South American grain which has some fantastic attributes such as containing a very high level of protein, being gluten free and it tastes delicious. Texture-wise it comes closest to couscous; taste-wise it is slightly more nutty than couscous and rice.

I believe there are 3 different seeds commercially available, but the two you will see the most are white and red quinoa. The red quinoa seed has a bit more bite to it and I therefore like to mix the two for my salads, savory breakfasts, dinner dishes etc. When I make quinoa paddies I however always use purely red quinoa because I can't get enough 'bind' with the white.

Cooking quinoa is really easy. You use 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa. Rinse the seeds well before cooking and add a bit of vegetable bouillon granulate to the water for extra taste. It needs to boil for app. 15 minutes, bring it to the boil at max heat and then lower heat to a minimum and leave it there until all the water has been soaked up and it is light and fluffy.