Quinoa

Quinoa. That strange food. What is it?

Quinoa is a grain. You cook it like rice, and in most recipes you can use it as a substitute for rice. Raw, quinoa looks like little seeds or pebbles, but when it is cooked, quinoa has a lovely golden color and the germ separates from the seed to leave little curlicues.

Why eat it?
Quinoa is very nutritious. And it tastes amazing. The flavor it slightly nutty. It's somewhere between rice and pasta. It has no gluten.

How do you cook it?
Just like rice! You can even cook it in a rice cooker. Use 1C quinoa to 2C water. Make sure you rinse the quinoa well before cooking. We rinse it by filling a bowl with water, placing the quinoa in a fine sieve, and stirring the quinoa around in the water until the water above the quinoa is clear.

How do you use it?
Cooked quinoa can be eaten plain or added to a wide variety of dishes. I like to eat it with just butter and salt. If you put a cheese sauce on quinoa it tastes similar to Mac n' Cheese. It can be added to soups to thicken them, salads to add flavor to them, or cooked up into a Quinoa Casserole (recipes to come soon).