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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Yay for Quinoa!
I have recently introduced quinoa into my diet. I am one of those people that are afraid of new grains after eating the same thing for so many years. I keep hearing rave reviews about quinoa being the perfect food and found it at my local C-Town Supermarket so I decided to buy it. My first attempt at cooking it was successful but the flavor was too salty due to the chicken broth I used to cook it in. Since then I have decided to cook only with the water as suggested on the package. I had a bad case of food poisoning last week and the only thing I could eat when I started feeling better this weekend was plain quinoa. My body was craving both protein and calcium and the flavor was definitely plain enough for my stomach to handle at that time.

Quinoa is the seed of a grain typically found in South America for many thousands of years. Quinoa is naturally gluten-free and is cooked similarly to rice. This seed is high in protein, calcium, and iron. Since it has an almost perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids, it is a complete protein and is often referred to as the perfect food.

I am excited that I now have quinoa in my pantry and look forward to explore many more recipes using it. Do you have any favorite quinoa recipes? Below is a recipe for Gluten-Free Tabouleh from Whole Foods that I can’t wait to try especially since I never had tabouleh in my life!

Whole Foods Market: Gluten-Free Tabouleh

Serves 4
• 1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions
• 1 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 5 green onions, finely chopped
• 2 cups small grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, thinly sliced
• Juice of 1 to 2 lemons, more to taste
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt, pepper and crushed red pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients together in a large serving bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Serve room temperature or chilled.

Nutrition Info
Per serving (About 8.5oz/238g-wt.): 340 calories (180 from fat), 20g total fat, 2.5g saturated fat, 7g protein, 38g total carbohydrate (5g dietary fiber, 4g sugar), 0mg cholesterol, 100mg sodium

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ditto yay for Quinoa! and thanks for the recipe. I think Quinoa is a nutritional powerhouse and excellent GF grain. I think more people should try it.

Blogger David Marc Fischer said...

Congrats on your quinoa conversion! It can go well with a stew or chili--something I learned from a now-defunct restaurant called Herban Kitchen.

Blogger Allergic Girl® said...

love quinoa. when i make a large batch i use it in both savory and sweet recipes. like tabouleh for savory and then i make some as a hot cereal with lactaid milk and raw maple syrup in the morning!

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