Quinoa

Oh, how I love thee, quinoa. My favorite seed. One of my favorie dishes is Quinoa Tabbouleh, which I first found in the Seattle Times food section. I've made it several times for potlucks and it is always a huge hit. It is also vegetarian and gluten free, so it is sure to please almost everyone.

Except for my two year old, Bugs. "Mama, I don't like quinoa. It has un-juns in it." But at least my Roo likes it! At least, I think she likes it, based on the mess she made. Oh well, I will keep making her eat it and not offering her anything as a substitute, and eventually she'll like it.

For my version, I don't rinse the quinoa before hand. Virtually all the quinoa sold in the US is sold without the bitter coating on it. I also don't dry it out on paper towels after I've finished cooking the seeds. It is messy and takes too long. And it tastes fine without it. I also use bottled lemon juice. I'm positive fresh would be much tastier, but frankly I'm not a gourmet cook and I don't have that kind of time, so bottled will do just fine. I do grow a few herbs, and one of the herbs I grow is mint, so I use that fresh from the garden. Currently that is the only garden herb I have available, but eventually I'm going to have cilantro and parsley as well. Yum!

When serving to Roo, I take out the toasted pine nuts, since they are a choking hazard for infants. I give her a bowl and a spoon and let her go at it. For clean up, I have found that letting it sit on the floor a while helps make clean up so much easier. I know, sometimes it's hard to let a mess just sit there, but it is nearly impossible to sweep up moist quinoa.

Quinoa is a South American seed grown in the Andes, and has been a staple there for thousands of years. It is highly nutritious, being high in protein, with almost all the amino acids that one needs in a healthy diet. It's also high in magnesium and iron, and a good source of fiber. It is fast and simple to prepare, and can be prepared in a variety of ways. You can cook it as you would rice (2 cups liquid to one cup quinoa, and it should soak up all the liquid after about 15 minutes of simmering), grind it into flour, or even sprouted to make it even more nutritious.