How to Add Flavor to Quinoa
Know your quinoa., Rinse your quinoa., Cook basic quinoa.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Know your quinoa.
There are plenty of particular strands of quinoa available, and the choices you make at the supermarket will have a significant impact on the way your recipe tastes.
Normally, when people mention quinoa, they are referring to the white, plain variety.
Consequently, plain quinoa is the most versatile and dependable type out there.
If you haven't had much experience cooking with quinoa before, it is recommended you start out with white quinoa.
It's also the fastest cooking-- between ten and fifteen minutes.
Red quinoa holds its shape after cooking, so it's the best choice for salads.
Its colour and vibrancy create a perfect bed for vegetables or proteins, like meat and legumes. .Red quinoa takes a little longer to cook-- around twelve to seventeen minutes.
Black quinoa is slightly sweeter and earthier than its plain counterpart.
Its striking colour makes it the recommended choice if you're wanting your recipe to be visually (as well as flavourfully) memorable.
However, black quinoa takes the longest time to cook in the pot-- between thirteen and eighteen minutes. -
Step 2: Rinse your quinoa.
After you've decided what type of quinoa you want to use, it is important to give the seeds a proper rinse.
Quinoa grows with a protective coating called saponin that tastes bitter when not rinsed off properly.
Place the quinoa in a fine-meshed sieve and run cold water through it, making sure the water hits to every morsel.
Although most storebought quinoa is already pre-rinsed, it's recommended you give it a good once-over yourself.
It doesn't need to be anything drastic; a two minute rinse is more than enough to get most, if not all of the bitterness away from your quinoa. , Before moving onto adding taste and zest to your quinoa, it is important to note how to prepare it.
To prepare the quinoa for your recipe, add a cup and a half of water to a pot for each cup of grain you'll be using.
Wait until the water begins to boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.
Add the quinoa, and wait for the given amount of time listed in the examples above.
Following that, you will have a supply of quinoa to use in virtually any dish.
Return the quinoa to the pan and let it rest for about fifteen minutes before using it in a recipe.
It will dry out a bit and your quinoa will be light and fluffy, not soggy and clumped.Rather than a pot, you can cook quinoa using a rice maker.
Although their appearance may vary, the manner in which they cook is quite similar, and using a rice maker may alleviate some of the workload for you.
Keep in mind, however, that quinoa (10-20 minutes) takes considerably less time to cook than rice (40 minutes); that fact should be considered if using anything conventionally used for making rice.
For an alternative preliminary cooking method, you can put the quinoa in a skillet with a bit of oil (canola, olive, or sesame) over low to medium heat.
Stir constantly for six to eight minutes, watching to make sure it does not burn.
Putting the quinoa over heat will help to bring out the natural nutty flavour before you add it to your recipe.
If you're strapped for time and looking for something really simple, quinoa tends to be significantly better tasting left plain than a lot of other grains.
Adding some salt and pepper to plain quinoa can be an enjoyable, if somewhat Spartan meal. -
Step 3: Cook basic quinoa.
Detailed Guide
There are plenty of particular strands of quinoa available, and the choices you make at the supermarket will have a significant impact on the way your recipe tastes.
Normally, when people mention quinoa, they are referring to the white, plain variety.
Consequently, plain quinoa is the most versatile and dependable type out there.
If you haven't had much experience cooking with quinoa before, it is recommended you start out with white quinoa.
It's also the fastest cooking-- between ten and fifteen minutes.
Red quinoa holds its shape after cooking, so it's the best choice for salads.
Its colour and vibrancy create a perfect bed for vegetables or proteins, like meat and legumes. .Red quinoa takes a little longer to cook-- around twelve to seventeen minutes.
Black quinoa is slightly sweeter and earthier than its plain counterpart.
Its striking colour makes it the recommended choice if you're wanting your recipe to be visually (as well as flavourfully) memorable.
However, black quinoa takes the longest time to cook in the pot-- between thirteen and eighteen minutes.
After you've decided what type of quinoa you want to use, it is important to give the seeds a proper rinse.
Quinoa grows with a protective coating called saponin that tastes bitter when not rinsed off properly.
Place the quinoa in a fine-meshed sieve and run cold water through it, making sure the water hits to every morsel.
Although most storebought quinoa is already pre-rinsed, it's recommended you give it a good once-over yourself.
It doesn't need to be anything drastic; a two minute rinse is more than enough to get most, if not all of the bitterness away from your quinoa. , Before moving onto adding taste and zest to your quinoa, it is important to note how to prepare it.
To prepare the quinoa for your recipe, add a cup and a half of water to a pot for each cup of grain you'll be using.
Wait until the water begins to boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.
Add the quinoa, and wait for the given amount of time listed in the examples above.
Following that, you will have a supply of quinoa to use in virtually any dish.
Return the quinoa to the pan and let it rest for about fifteen minutes before using it in a recipe.
It will dry out a bit and your quinoa will be light and fluffy, not soggy and clumped.Rather than a pot, you can cook quinoa using a rice maker.
Although their appearance may vary, the manner in which they cook is quite similar, and using a rice maker may alleviate some of the workload for you.
Keep in mind, however, that quinoa (10-20 minutes) takes considerably less time to cook than rice (40 minutes); that fact should be considered if using anything conventionally used for making rice.
For an alternative preliminary cooking method, you can put the quinoa in a skillet with a bit of oil (canola, olive, or sesame) over low to medium heat.
Stir constantly for six to eight minutes, watching to make sure it does not burn.
Putting the quinoa over heat will help to bring out the natural nutty flavour before you add it to your recipe.
If you're strapped for time and looking for something really simple, quinoa tends to be significantly better tasting left plain than a lot of other grains.
Adding some salt and pepper to plain quinoa can be an enjoyable, if somewhat Spartan meal.
About the Author
Marie Price
Brings years of experience writing about cooking and related subjects.
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