What’s Quinoa… Sounds weird…  Just some of the things I hear when I bring up this ancient power food grain with clients from FUK Flour. But let me tell you this, it comes in a few colours and each colour contains its own flavour & texture.  My favourite is the red quinoa, not too sweet and not too bitter just with a perfect little nutty taste and crunchiness.   The white quinoa is more mild in flavour and perfect for combining with other ingredients. Last but not least, our beautiful, stylish black quinoa which has a stronger flavor, keeps more of its crunch and speaks for itself.

                                         
Raw Red Quinoa                                                          Cooked Red Quinoa

                               
Raw White Quinoa                                                   Cooked White Quinoa

Raw Black Quinoa                                                   Cooked Black Quinoa

FYI

Quinoa is 100% gluten-free and great nutritional importance for people who have a Gluten Intolerance or Celiac Disease and secondary only to the potato, and was followed in importance to corn. Now this crop has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), and like oats, quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for us humans, making it a power food with a complete protein source.  It’s a very good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. For myself I have to watch my intake of quinoa as I am a carrier for Hemochromatosis, which means I have Iron Overload the opposite of enemia.  Quinoa is 100% gluten-free and is easy to digest.  NASA is considering a possible crop for it’s Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long flight durations for human occupied spaceflights

 Preparing Quinoa

Most boxed or pre-packaged quinoa has already been pre-rinsed for convenience, and cooking instructions therefore suggest only a brief rinse before cooking, if at all.  If quinoa has not been pre-rinsed, for example buying quinoa in a bulk store loose.  The first step is to remove the saponins, a process that requires either soaking the grain in water for a few hours, then refresh the water and re-soak, or rinsing the quinoa in running water for several minutes in a fine strainer.  Removing the saponin helps with digestion; the soapy nature of the compound makes it act as a laxative, hence why quinoa helps maintain a regular bowel movement.

The Way I cook quinoa is much like rice, bringing two cups (I use 1 3/4 cup as l like mine quinoa a bit al dente) of water to a boil with one cup of grain, covering at a low simmer and cooking for 10–15 minutes or until the germ separates from the seed (you see the little whitish tail).  As another means of cooking, one can use a rice cooker to prepare quinoa, treating it just like white rice and following the same directions.

A little 101

Taken from the Spanish spelling of the Quechua name kinwa or occasionally “Qin-wah”, Quinoa originated in the Andes region, where it was successfully cultivated 3,000 to 4,000 years ago for human ingestion, but archeological evidence shows a non-cultivated association with agricultural herding some 5,200 to 7,000 years ago.  It also goes back to the Incas, who held the harvest to be very sacred, referred to quinoa as chisaya mama or ‘mother of all grains’, and it was the Inca emperor who would traditionally sow the first seeds of the season using “golden implements”.  Still some what revered Quinoa in 2013 will be declared UN International Year of Quinoa and has becoming one of the most popular gluten free foods today.

What Quinoa plant looks like

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