In the interest of eating better, I’ve taken to exploring new things and have been spending a lot of time and $$ at Trader Joe’s. I read an article on quinoa last year in Sierra, and was interested in trying it. I finally got around to buying a package at TJs today and would like some good recipes to introduce a few quinoa noobs to this Incan grain.
(Crossposted from the Bizarro Dope, sorry!)
No love for the quinoa?
Yeah thanks, I’m aware of how to google. I suppose I shouldn’t aim to ask actual people who might have eaten this personally for their opinions.
Wait! Don’t give up on us!
I LOVE adding quinoa to my homemade vegetable soup. Just be sure, in case you weren’t already aware, to rinse the quinoa before using it. Otherwise, it will taste bitter/soapy.
I just throw it in the soup with everything else and let the soup simmer forever. I’m a big fan of the quinoa in the soup. The rest of the family barely notices, but I like the added nutritional value.
I have made a yummy quinoa potato salad; it was your basic potato salad with a lot of quinoa thrown in. Yummy, but not all that filling.
I also have a nice recipe for quinoa flour butterscotch brownies–yum.
After you rinse it, toast it in a dry skillet for a few minutes to give it a nuttier flavor after it’s cooked. And I always cook mine in broth, either veggie broth or free-range organic chicken broth. We love that chewy “popping” texture it has.
Yup, I almost always toast it before I cook it.
It’s also good as a hot breakfast cereal. Cook it with some milk, sweetener of your choice, and whatever fruit you like. I personally like it with cinnamon & bananas.
I use it a lot as a replacement for rice in stir fry and that sort of thing. It cooks faster and I can be lazy.
If you like eggplant, try this*:
Tasty Eggplant Bake
Ingredients :
3/4 cup uncooked Quinoa
1.5 cups of vegetable broth (store bought is fine)
1 large eggplant sliced and peeled
1 large green pepper
1 large red pepper
1 med zucchini
1 onion
3/4 cloves garlic
soy cheese (parmesan)
1 small can of fancy tomato sauce (with herbs and things!)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 475.
Prepare quinoa: bring broth & one chopped garlic clove to a boil, add quinoa, & simmer for about 15 minutes
Meanwhile - slice and salt the eggplant – rinse it and sprinkle with 1 tsp. olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Put aside,
Slice up remaining vegies and garlic. Layer the vegies type by type with quinoa and soy parm alternating.
Pour can of tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle with soy parm and bake for about 40 minutes.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 1.5 hr
*this is the recipe as written, which I got from a friend who is on Weight Watchers Core plan with me. I used feta cheese instead of the soy parmesan with this, and it came out great.
These look great guys…using it as a breakfast cereal had also not occurred to me. I will have to whip some up in varying styles for lunch this week!
This is all new to me. I thought it was some complicated betting at the horse track.
I would suggest malting it for homebrew.
You can just start off with using quinoa instead of rice in various recipes. It does have a very distinct texture (a friend refers to it, with authority, as “blackbird eyes”) but it tastes great.
Well inspired by dangermom’s post, I added a bit to some pasta salad this evening. I believe I have made God’s Own Pasta Salad. This stuff is great! Even my husband likes it, and he’s pretty picky (when we first met his idea of exotic foreign food was Olive Garden). How well does it hold up in soups and the like?
Campion, I agree the texture was a little different at first. It reminds me a lot of wild rice. I believe I am going to have a lot of fun making pilafs and stuff with it. From the article I had read I was thinking it was going to have a distinctive taste that would be off-putting, but it’s really good!
Here’s a recipe for Quinoa Surprise:
Take one cup of toasted quinoa. Simmer in two cups water till tender.
Add heart of your enemy, ripped beating from his living chest, diced and dredged in herbed corn flour. Stir into quinoa.
Add splash of Madeira. Cover and simmer till just done.
What?
Hmm, quinoa and the still-beating heart of Jeff Gordon. Sounds delicious!
badbadrubberpiggy, I’m trying your eggplant recipe this weekend, although I may substitute a different squash. Sounds so yummy though!