Quinoa is one of my most favorite grains in the world! It's a tiny grain, smaller than millet, but larger than amaranth. And it's packed with energy. I can eat a bowl of quinoa in the morning and work hard for 4 or 5 hours without getting hungry, tired, or weak.
Quinoa — pronounced like "keen-nu'wah."
The trick to eating quinoa is to prepare it properly. It contains a high level of saponin in it that gives the grain a bitter, soapy quality that is actually undigestible. In fact, plants high in saponin are used for making soap! Therefore, quinoa must be soaked in water overnight and then rinsed thoroughly until all the soapy bubbles are gone.*** Then it takes only about 15 minutes to cook it on the stove (boiled/simmered in water) or an hour to cook it in a rice cooker (using the same proportions as rice to water).
It's delicious as a hot breakfast cereal, mixed with fruit or nuts, but my favorite is as a savory lunch or dinner entree, with a little ume plum vinegar (Eden Foods) sprinkled over it and accompanied by a cooked vegetable of some sort (something fresh, locally grown, and in-season).
My very most favorite meal, however, is a bowl of quinoa with a bag of potato chips! But I am very much aware of how potatoes can add fat directly to one's mid-section. I used to always think that it was the deep-fried fat in potato chips that was so fattening, but all along it was probably the carbohydrates of the potato that was making my belly grow...
Quinoa and potatoes are mentioned in a recent article in "Macrobiotics Today" magazine (January/February 2011 issue, "The Brave New World of Genetic Chaos" by Dennis Willmont):
"The potato originated in the Andes of South America where it is still eaten in combination with very tiny whole grains like quinoa and amaranth to give people more vitamins and minerals and bring a better balance."
By the way, this article is a very important and interesting article that gives me many good reasons to buy/eat only organic food! The complete article is available as a free-download pdf on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website this month (February 2011).
*** Note: Don't let anyone kid you into thinking that you don't have to soak your quinoa in water overnight because it has supposedly been "pre-rinsed." The soaking process will pull out all the hidden saponin inside the grain, and in the morning the liquid will be dark-dark amber colored and frothy with soap bubbles. Also, an added benefit to overnight soaking is that the quinoa swells up and becomes too large to fit through the tiny holes of a wire-mesh strainer, making it much easier to rinse.
Related Articles:
Organic Farmers and SOS-Earth
