Cooking Quinoa

Cooking Quinoa

What is Quinoa

Quinoa is a protein rich whole grain. It’s a very important part of vegan diets because it’s also a complete protein. That means it has all the essential amino acids that your body needs to form healthy cells and create important things like body tissue and muscles. Bottom line, it’s really good for you.

The first thing you need to know about cooking quinoa is that you have to rinse it before you cook it. There’s a coating on quinoa that makes it taste bitter. Not a good bitter like broccoli rate but bitter as in nasty. If you ever try to grow it in your garden, this bitterness will be your friend because very few birds will steal your crops before your harvest them. Luckily this coating easily rinses off. So before you cook it, put it in a metal strainer and let some cold water run on it for a few minutes.

Now even if you rinse off the bitter coating you aren’t out of the woods yet when it comes to taste. You want light fluffy quinoa. Wet and soggy quinoa doesn’t taste as good and that means you won’t want to eat it as much. Then you’re body won’t grow you any new muscles. And the best way to make light and fluffy quinoa is to use less water and cook it slower than most instructions tell you to.

For ever 1 cup of quinoa, add 1 1/4 cup water or broth. You can use chicken broth or vegetable broth but just plain water is fine too. I guess you could use milk or soy milk but I haven’t tried that. If you do, let me know how it comes out. Nothing beats Trader Joe’s veggie broth though for adding good flavor to your quinoa.

Heat up the pan and the liquid a bit but not all the way to a boil. Then drop in the rinsed quinoa and cover it up. Reduce heat to simmer and leave it alone for 30 minutes. I’m sure you’ll want to look at it and maybe mix it up but control yourself and don’t. After 30 minutes, remove it from the flame but don’t open it yet. Let it sit another 5 minutes.

I like to make a big batch on the weekends and put it in the fridge. then I can take some out and heat it up for breakfast quinoa or garlic veggie quinoa. I should post those recipes at some point too.

And that’s how you make delicious quinoa the right way. Well, this is how I like it anyway. Try it and see if that’s how you like it too.