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My first attempt at cooking the super healthy food Quinoa

By Foong, on February 3rd, 2009

The first time I heard of Quinoa is when I read about it over at Gera’s SweetsFoods blog and then when I did my fat burning food series, I found out how versatile it is and best of all, it is one of the super healthy foods you simply must have in your diet! Quinoa (pronounced as keenwah) is gluten-free and it is high in protein and best of all, it is also a fat burning food and a heart healthy food.

redquinoa2 My first attempt at cooking the super healthy food Quinoa

I have never cooked quinoa before so I searched around for ways to cook quinoa and stumbled upon this site. I got the Cranberry Almond Quinoa Recipe there and thought, I’d give it a try with slight changes. This is what I managed to cook:

Cranberry and almonds Quinoa

Cranberry and almonds with Red Quinoa

Trust me, it is as delicious as it looks. Move over boring plain ole rice, here comes quinoa! It has a slightly crunchy texture like crunching on tiny semi-soft bubbles that pop in your mouth easily and the flavour…oh, I simply love the flavour! It has a nutty scent to it so it is like eating some exotic tiny nuts. Which I think it is in a way since it is a grain and it is from Peru. The addition of toasted almond flakes gives it even extra crunchy texture and rich almond flavours while the dried cranberries cuts the richness with its slight sourish flavour. Magnifique!

Here’s the recipe for

Cranberry Almonds Red Quinoa

Ingredients

1/2 cup red Quinoa (I reduced the amount from the original recipe because quinoa is known to double up in size after cooking)

I used the organic red quinoa

*I used the organic red quinoa*

Half cube of chicken stock

halfcubechickenstock My first attempt at cooking the super healthy food Quinoa

a dash of sea salt

a dash of cinnamon powder

1/4 cup almonds, sliced into flakes and toasted

1/4 cup dried cranberries

Toasted almond flakes and dried cranberries

*Toasted almond flakes and dried cranberries*

1 cup of boiling water

Instructions

1. Soak the quinoa in water for about 30 mins to 1 hour.

soakquinoa My first attempt at cooking the super healthy food Quinoa

2. Then you rinse it out several times. This is because it has a bitter taste if it is not soaked and rinsed properly.

Use a fine mesh sieve to drain the quinoa

*Use a fine mesh sieve to drain the quinoa*

3. Heat up a non-stick pan and pour your drained quinoa in. Stir fry it till it has dried out. Then you add in the almonds and cranberries.

Add the cranberries and almonds and continue to stir fry

*Add the cranberries and almonds and continue to stir fry*

4. Then, pour in the boiling water, add the chicken stock, salt and cinnamon powder.

pourinboilingwater My first attempt at cooking the super healthy food Quinoa

5. Now, cover it and let it simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Then you stir it, turn off the heat and let it stand covered for another five minutes.

6. Serve while still hot. It can be eaten as it is or you can serve it up with some nice fish curry.

You can serve it with some curry too

*You can serve it with some curry too*

It is a great healthy replacement for rice and if you find it too complicated just cook it without the added flavours and eat it with other dishes like curry, just like how you’d eat rice. Now that I know how to cook quinoa, I will be cooking quinoa recipes even more!

If you like this post, check out these too!
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  • How to cook quinoa series – Chicken and Mushrooms Quinoa...

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