Quinoa in Salad

What is Quinoa?

Quinoa is a vegan superfood which is an annual seed-producing flowering plant (Chenopodium quinoa) grown as a grain crop. It is a pseudocereal, not a grass, unlike wheat and rice.It is botanically related to spinach. Quinoa seeds are rich in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins, and dietary minerals in amounts greater than in many grains.(Wikipedia)

Quinoa is famed for being a superfood. It is gluten-free, vegan, high in protein and one of the few plant foods that contain sufficient amounts of all nine essential amino acids required by our body.(1)

Quinoa cooking tips

My first tryst with quinoa was nearly 5 years back. At that time I was riding high, on the health food bandwagon. I was on a constant look out for foods that claimed to help in weight loss.  In pursuit of this quest, on one of my supermarket trips I came across a ridiculously highly priced packet of quinoa. I immediately bought it without a second thought!

On the next weekend I announced to Mom that I will be making a super healthy Quinoa pilaf for lunch. After a lot of cutting, chopping and  peeling (and swearing at the pot boiling the quinoa) my first dish made of Quinoa was ready! But alas! We nearly spat out the spoonful as it was very bitter. I was aghast! Rarely I have made such major faux pas in my cooking adventures. So our lunch that day was well and truly spoiled.

How to make a Quinoa Salad

Then I began my research on why my quinoa is bitter. I got to know that as quinoa is actually a seed and not a grain, nature has given it a natural coating of a substance called saponin which prevents birds from eating it. It is this saponin that makes quinoa taste bitter. The solution for this is to soak rinse the quinoa very well before cooking. It is important to soak the quinoa the night before you are going to cook it to get rid of the saponin.

The next time I made Quinoa, I followed all the tips and my dish was perfect! It has an intrinsic nutty flavour and a pronounced bite to it. It can be mixed in salads or consumed as a rice substitute. The best thing is it is high in protein and also gluten free! That is like a double bonanza!

1. Quinoa: Nutritional, functional, and antinutritional aspects.
   Filho AM1, Pirozi MR1, Borges JT2, Pinheiro Sant’Ana HM3, Chaves JB1, Coimbra JS1.