Quinoa, the new superfood. Lets be honest, we’ve heard of it, we’ve wondered what exactly quinoa is, and we’re just a little skeptical. I started using Quinoa about 2 years ago. Luis has a Gluten-Intolerance and we eat mostly GF, so quinoa is a must (Unless we wanted to eat rice everyday!). What exactly is Quinoa?
Origins: Andean region of Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. It was domesticated about 4,000(ish) years ago. It is related to spinach, beets, and tumbleweeds.
History: The Incas believed Quinoa to be sacred and was considered a “supergrain” , and the empress would traditionally sow the first seed. The Europeans, during their conquest deemed quinoa “food for Indians”. They suppressed the growing of quinoa which forced the Incas to grow wheat.
Health benefits: It is high in amino acids such as lysine. It also is high in calcium, iron, magnesium and phosphorus. It is also a complete protein. Also, one cup of quinoa provides about 20% of your daily fiber, I’d say plus! It is also naturally gluten-free.
preparation: It is prepared similar to rice, one part seed to about 1.5 parts water/stock. It can be eaten in salads, soups, as a side, as the main dish, as a breakfast cereal, as an infant cereal, sprouted, in place of pasta, as pasta, as a dessert, used as a flour…basically any way you wish. One thing that must be done before cooking quinoa, is it needs to be rinsed. There is a bitter coating that needs to be washed off, or the seed will taste, well, bitter. It takes about 3 washings…just cover seed in water, stir it around, drain, and repeat till water is nearly clear.
I’m currently sprouting my quinoa. This cultivates live enzymes, as well as preserves the nutrients since you don’t need to cook it. I soaked the sprouts over night in a wide mouth canning jar. In the morning i drained them, and covered them. You’re supposed to use cheese cloth, but i didn’t have that so i used one of Z’s gdiaper liners (It was clean!) instead. Store it in a semi-dark place. Rinse and drain 2x a day for about 3-5 days. Then store it in the fridge for up to a week!
Another favorite of ours is when I cook the quinoa in chicken stock (or vegetable stock for you veggies), saute some organic sweet bell peppers and onions with garlic, and mix it all together at the end. It makes a good side to salmon or chicken!
Luis also likes pouring meat sauce over the cooked quinoa instead of spaghetti noodles.
So, there you have it. You are now a quinoa-expert. Get cookin’!!
Sources: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/10352/2, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
Elizabeth Horn 
Primary benefit of KEEN WAA over most grains is that it naturally has a hard outer shell as it’s primary ‘do not eat me’ protection. Grain on the other hand tends to have softer shells and protect themselves through copious amounts of chemical warfare compounds called anti-nutrients which bond to the nutrient goodness making it bio-unavailable. KEEN WAA has significantly fewer of these anti-nutrients, which are made even less by your soaking/sprouting process.
Well done you!