Quinoa.
Huh?
Ki-noh-ah
Come again?
…
That
was pretty much my reaction the first time I heard about quinoa about three
years ago. Native to the Andean region in South America, quinoa started showing
up on the shelves of healthy food stores only a few years ago. And it’s
healthy, alright. This tiny winy seed is one of the rare plant-based sources of
complete protein, it is gluten free and it is loaded with fibres, magnesium and
phosphorus. Despite, its grainy looks, quinoa is indeed a seed and belongs to
the same family as the good old spinach and beet. During the period of the
colonisation of South America, the Spanish favoured the cultivation of maize
and potatoes over quinoa (due mostly to the seed’s spiritual stature among the
natives and its bitter taste coming from the saponin coating) and that’s why
quinoa didn’t make its world premier sooner.
I
discovered quinoa right at the time when I was starting to get tired of my
inability to cook rice. Now, don’t get me wrong. I know how to boil rice. But for some reason I haven’t
quite mastered the art of cooking rice the Turkish way. And to be honest I’d
rather not eat rice if it comes down to eating boiled rice. But more on that in
a later post.
Back
to quinoa.
It’s
pretty fuss free to cook quinoa. The only important part is to rinse it well
before cooking it to get rid of that bitter-tasting saponin coating (I invite
you to Wikipedia what saponin is because my understanding of bio-chemistry is
not quite up to the challenge of explaining it here). Then all you need to do
is to boil it for about 20 minutes, or until the little seeds start opening up.
If you want to be more fancy, you can first boil it for 10 minutes, rinse it
under cold water and then steam it for another 10 minutes. This two-part method
makes quinoa very fluffy.
I
personally like quinoa served along with a stew or in a salad. Also, I tend to
purchase both red and white quinoa and mix them together at home for a
colourful combination. Here is a bon appétit recipe I made using black quinoa,
which, because of its coarser texture, added a nice crunch to this summer
salad!
Quinoa, Chickpea and Spinach salad
Serves
6 to 8 as a main dish
1½
black quinoa, rinsed (feel free to use any other type of quinoa if you can’t
find the black one)
4
cups baby spinach leaves
1
19 oz (540ml) can of chickpeas, rinsed (those cans are packed with a lot of
salt that you really don’t need)
1¾
cups English cucumber (the long ones) or 2 small cucumbers, cut into small
cubes
1
1-pint container of cherry tomatoes, halved
1
cup fresh mint leaves, torn
1½
cup feta cheese, crumbled
¼
cup sherry vinegar
3
teaspoons smoked paprika
½
olive oil
Place
the quinoa in a large pot of salted boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. After
10 minutes drain it in a sieve and rinse under cold running water. In the same pot, bring a few inches of water to a boil. Set the sieve with quinoa over the pot and covered it with a kitchen towel (or paper towel) and a lid. Steam quinoa until fluffy and dry (about 10 to 15 minutes). Transfer to into a bowl and let cool down.
In
the mean time place the spinach, chickpeas, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, fresh
mint and half of the feta cheese in a large bowl. In a separate small bowl
combine the paprika, sherry vinegar and olive oil. Add the cooled down quinoa
into the spinach mixture and pour the vinaigrette over. Mix until well combined
(the salad should have a red hue). Place the remaining feta cheese on top and
serve.
