Food Suggestion: Quinoa

[glittalogik]

Not sure how many of you have already tried, or even heard of the stuff, but quinoa (pronounced 'keen-wa') is worth a look if you want something new to add to your diet. Here's some info for those unfamiliar with it:

Quinoa is considered to be a grain, although technically it's a seed, coming from a leafy plant that looks a bit like spinach, grown on the slopes of the Andes Mountains of South America. It was apparently a staple part of the Incan diet along with corn and potatoes, and has a pretty impressive nutritional profile.

Quinoa contains more protein than most grains, and its protein is of an unusually high quality with an essential amino acid balance close to the ideal. Quinoa's protein is high in lysine, methionine and cystine, making it an excellent food to combine with, and boost the protein value of, other grains (which are low in lysine), or soy (which is low in methionine and cystine).

More nutritional info at http://www.elook.org/nutrition/grains/6653.html

I've been having it for breakfast for a while now, usually mixed with a bit of fruit, and I love the stuff. It's given me a dairy free breakfast option - I like milk, but it sends my mucous production crazy and I spend all day clearing my throat. This stuff is filling, but still 'clean', I don't feel gluggy at all after I've eaten it, and I don't feel weighed down, even if I've just stuffed myself full of the stuff.

It's easy to prepare - 1 part quinoa to two parts water, simmer for 10 mins, add whatever you want, and it's done...if you're a raw-foodist or something I reckon you could just let it soak overnight and it'd come out the same. It can be added to pretty much any dish as a grain substitute as well, although I've yet to experiment much.

You can find it in most health food stores, and it's starting to appear in a few supermarkets around here.

[Connie Brown]

Completely agree! It's really cool stuff and much, much better as an easy-to-cook starch than Uncle Ben's.

Other benefits - it's a good really slow-glycemic source of carb energy, and has tons of potassium for those watching their sodium-to-potassium ratio (helps with the whole glucose management system)

[Scotty D.]

My experience is also that quinoa is the easiest seed to use for sprouting. A six hour soak and a 10 hour drain should get you a decent sprout; timing depends upon the seed quality. Through germination you can release many of a seeds enzyme inhibitors, which means you get more assimilable nutrients.

A great cereal I used to make was sprouted, then dehydrated, buckwheat. I am sure you could do it with quinoa too. If you haven't a dehydrator you can use the oven at the lowest temperature setting with the door slightly ajar.

Ethiopian cuisine may be of interest to the RR eating scene. They make their bread, called injera, from a seed called teff; like quinoa, it is a seed that is used like a grain. It has a similar protein profile to quinoa. The bread is actually quite like a pancake. Plates are served with different legume, vegetable, and meat dishes (called wat) served in piles on top of the injera. This plate is shared by those eating, who pull of pieces of the injera and use it to 'pinch-up' selections of the different dishes. I would imagine since there are two Ethiopian restraunts here in Halifax that they are common enough now in most American and Canadian cities.