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Monday, October 1, 2012

A quick word on Quinoa



So there's been a lot of fantastic food over the last few weeks from brunch to a delicious dinner with the rents to a very fantastic anniversary dinner involving wine and seared ahi tuna.I also got the opportunity to sample some fresh from the garden tomatoes from my friend and coworker M. They were scrumptious!


Today I'm just giving a quick note on a new item I tried. With all this talk of gluten free etc. there's been an increased market for alternative grains. Quinoa happens to be one of the ones that often comes up in the health food circles. I've had quinoa maybe once or twice, and didn't particularly dislike it but didn't find it so amazing I had to have it again, however I discovered red quinoa in the store the other day and decided to give it a shot. I'm not a big fan of rice and I thought some other grains might be a good idea.

I cooked some up tonight for the week. It does look a little odd since it's tiny little reddish dots but it gets points for easy cooking. 20 mins to cook and let stand. The package claims the red quinoa has a nutty flavor. I'd say it definitely has a richer taste to it. I like the texture because it has a little crunch in a good way, so you really feel like you're eating something substantial. It's texture and flavor seems to lend itself well to making salads like a quinoa corn and bean salad or something of the sort. I may have to start to look into this because grain more because it really has caught my attention.
 I also discovered that it looks beautiful when it grows, as you can see in the picture above.

Since I'm still learning how to use this lovely grain I just mixed up a little tofu and veggies with a light miso/chili/chicken broth sauce and there's a meal!