The Quinoa Project

I was recently introduced to a new grain (which really isn't new at all, its just currently in the spotlight, it was actually used regularly by ancient Incas, so its quite old). You could say its the "it" thing right now among foodies. My mom, the food hipster, has of course been cooking with it for 15 years, but it is just now making its way into my vocabulary. Per request of one of my (very few) followers, this post will be all about this grain. It's called Quinoa - pronounced keen-wah. It is used often in South American cooking and contains more protein than most other grains. Since I'm on a bit of a health kick (this week) I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to experiment with this grain and see what it has to offer.

I wasn't sure where to start with this stuff, so I typed it into Google and discovered that there are a multitude of different ways to cook it. I decided that I wanted to try out a few different recipes in order to fully grasp what this grain is all about. Besides. my health kick isn't going to last forever, so I thought I may as well get as much use out of it as I can right now.

Breakfast

Quinoa Pancakes

For breakfast I made quinoa pancakes. This is one of Martha Stewart's recipes, which can be found here. It was like any other regular pancake recipe, with the addition of a cup of cooked quinoa. Normally I can throw down quite a few pancakes, but not these guys. They were quite a bit more dense and I had a hard time finishing three. It did however keep me full for a good portion of the morning. Other than their density, I don't have much to complain about, but I'll probably stick to regular ol' pancakes from here on out.

Dinner 

Quinoa Chicken Tacos

For this I got onto Allrecipes and looked for any recipe including quinoa. I decided on the most popular and highest rated, Quinoa and Black Beans. Rather than a side dish however, I wanted to make this the spotlight of the meal, so I came up with quinoa and black bean chicken tacos. I followed the recipe down to the T and then cooked up some boneless skinless chicken breast pieces in some vegetable oil, lemon juice, water, cayanne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. I served these on whole wheat and corn tortillas with fresh cilantro, diced tomatoes and avocado.  I was pleasantly surprised with how well these came out. Turns out I can eat healthy and still still enjoy it! It made enough for 3 days worth of tacos, so I'll probably be making them again but not anytime soon. 


Dessert

Quinoa Pudding

Rice pudding is one of my favorite desserts, so when I found a recipe for quinoa pudding, I knew it had to be among the recipes I tried. This recipe was also located at Allrecipes under Quinoa Pudding. Like many of the reviewers suggested, I made a couple of alterations. I used vanilla soy milk instead of the 2 cups of apple juice it called for, and a teaspoon of lemon juice rather than two. It was a far cry from the rice pudding I know and love, but I can honestly say its 100% guilt free. It really didn't satisfy much of a sweet tooth, so I think i'll eat the leftover in the morning for breakfast. Tastes more like a hot cereal anyway. 


I guess I should note that I made all of these over the course of a couple days, not all in one day. I do have a refrigerator full of cooked quinoa now, so I will have leftovers for a few days - enough to finish my health kick without the need to cook anything else. While I may not make a couple of these recipes ever again, I'm glad that I had a chance to experiment with them and broaden my grain horizon. On the off chance that I'll ever need to cook for a vegan, I'll have a couple of recipes up my sleeve.