Quinoa recipes?

[chayton]

Any of you cookery folks have any good recipes that use quinoa? I'm trying to incorporate it into our diet more and so far I've only boiled it like rice. I need to find some other ways to use it, and thought I'd ask people that I (sort of) know rather than google - that way I can ask stupid questions.

 

[max1mike]

dont know why you'd want to eat that cardboard.... but we tried this and it was kinda palatable. :

LASAGNEQUINOA
1 can peeled tomatoes or
4 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 lb hamburger or veggie burger
2-8 oz cans tomato sauce
3 cups quinoa, cooked
1/4 lb mozzarella cheese, crumbled
1/4 lb parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oregano
1 cup onion, minced
1/2 lb ricotta cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced


Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until browned. Add hamburger, cook until browned. Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, salt and oregano. Simmer. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put layer of this sauce in bottom of 13x9x2-1/2" baking dish, following with layer of quinoa and layer of cheese. Repeat two more layers ending with sauce an extra Parmesan cheese on top. Bake about 35 minutes. Serves 6-8.

 

[maxd]

dont know why you'd want to eat that ....

Super healthy for one thing:

Quinoa Nutrition: The most protein of any grain, great source of vitamins & minerals - iron, magnesium, Vit E, potassium, amino acids, fiber - ideal for vegetarian or vegan diets. (Link Removed ( Old/Invalid) )

As to the "what to do with it" question here might be a good place to start, especially if you scroll down a bit to the "What To Do With Cooked Quinoa" section after the fold: Link Removed ( Old/Invalid)

In our house my wife is the big fan of quinoa. I like it well enough but I'm not wild about it on it's own. For my tastes it's best in soups, fritattas (basically a baked omelet with extra veg), and especially good in home-made veggie burgers and vegetarian chilli. You can also mix it with other grains to good effect, basically anywhere you'd use couscous, bulgar, spelt, buckwheat, etc. We also throw it into porridge, mix it with brown rice, add it to pretty much any grain salad, etc. Quinoa is pretty versatile stuff and given how good it is for you (especially if you're doing the vegetarian thing) it's worth experimenting a bit to see how you like it best.

Might also mention that there are actually three types of quinoa available on the market: red (unshelled grains), the usual white stuff ("shelled" red quinoa) but also black (I believe this is a different varietal, possibly African?), each with fairly distinct flavours. Cooking with a mix of them livens things up a bit and adds a welcome visual appeal. Use any proportions you like but you might want to take it easy on over-doing it with the red, it can be a bit unpalatable.

 

[chayton]

The stuff I got is white, I picked it up in bulk at this place I go to so I didn't even know how to cook it at first. The reason I even knew about it is that I typed up a menu plan for a dietician for someone who had high cholesterol, and it was mentioned several times.

Ray was recently diagnosed with high cholesterol, so I figured we'd try it and see how we liked it. I personally don't mind it just plain (it's got a really interesting texture) but if I expect Ray to eat it with any regularity, I'll have to come up with some other stuff to do with it.

thanks for the input!