Quinoa: Its what's for breakfast!

[Stinky The Clown]

I quite literally stepped in it and them bought more. I was in Costco. A bag of this had split open and spilled on the floor. I got there before Sweeper Guy. It caused me to read the bag.

" ....... for breakfast, combine with fruit juice ...... "

So here's what I did:

Rinse one cup of the quinoa under cold running water. Drain well.

Put the now-damp quinoa in a dry frying pan and turn up the heat. The water residue will quickly boil off and the grains will return to the their dry state (they absorbed nothing during the rinsing). Pan toast them till they smell nice and nutty, and have turned golden.

Add the now toasted grain to a cup of water and a cup of some clear fruit juice. If you're feeling self indulgent, use two cups of juice and no water. Actually, the ratio is one measure dry grain to two measures liquid - so the amounts are up to you. I used two cups of Cranberry/Pomegranate juice. Then I got **really** indulgent. I added some chopped up dried Turkish apricots, some chopped up dried Philippine mangos, some craisins and some dried blueberries. I let them cook in the liquid along with the quinoa to get all nice and plumpy.

Cooking time is about 15 or 20 minutes at a low simmer. The quinoa will throw off some sort of spiral "threads" which are part of their outer hull that splits while cooking. That's the sign the stuff is done.

Man, that's a good, hearty breakfast. More fun than oatmeal. Lactose and gluten free (if that matters to you) and, for breakfast, has a nice amount of protein and all eight amino acids.

[hippywife]

1. I have some in the cabinet

and never thought to try it for breakfast. Good idea. :hi:

[Warpy]

2. The only other thing I've liked it in are salads

Quinoa (KEE-nwa) is one of those superfoods, meaning if you have nothing else to eat, you can sustain life on it alone for a very long time before deficiencies kick in.

The fruit juice idea sounds great. I'm thinking of apple juice, dried apple, raisins, and a little cinnamon.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Your proposed recipe would surtely be good.

I'm amazed at how good cooked fruit juice is in all this.

[Dover]

4. I like the idea of toasting it first. I like quinoa but forget to use it.

I guess that's because it's not been in my food repertoire until recently.
I've mainly used it in salads or as a substitute for rice.
I don't think of it when I am contemplating making something sweet, so I'll be
interested to try this. It's certainly the healthy choice.