The Art Of Cooking Quinoa And Creating Easy Quinoa Recipes

When I first started cooking quinoa there were very few easy quinoa recipes. There were absolutely no books in print on how to cook quinoa. The internet had a few websites here and there but most of them were not very helpful. I started by cooking the recipes that were printed on the sides of the packets. Being an experienced amateur cook did help me to gain a good understanding of how I should cook quinoa and develop recipes for it. Very quickly I could see the benefits of this super food.

Do Not Be Afraid Of New Ingredients

I am not afraid of trying out new things but I know many people are. I have a weekly email postbag asking how they should cook quinoa. Most seem to express a fear of doing something wrong and ruining their food. The best thing to do is think of how you cook any other seed, grain or legume and apply that to quinoa. By doing this you suddenly have a huge range of possible ways to eat quinoa that you can try out.

The beauty of this grain is that you can not go wrong with it as long as you follow some very simple rules. The main one of these is don't let it boil dry when you cook it. You cook it by adding 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water. You then bring it to the boil and simmer it for between 10 and 15 minutes. It is then ready to eat as it is. You can also then put it in quinoa recipes. Quinoa is a great mixer food. You can use it as the basis for salads or as an accompaniment to your dinner.

Be Prepared To Experiment

The great aspect of cooking any type of seed or grain is that you have room to experiment. You can boil them, fry them and eat them raw. They can be put into soups and casseroles. They can be added to salads to add extra fibre and nutrition to a bland meal. Once you have cooked quinoa 4 or 5 times you will begin to see that it can be put into all types of meals and recipes. One of my early experiments was to add pre cooked quinoa to my favourite cheese scone recipe. I reduced the amount of butter and cheese in the standard recipe and replaced these ingredients with quinoa. The result was delicious.

The Easiest Quinoa Recipe

By far the easiest quinoa recipe is a quinoa salad. You can pre cook the quinoa and cool it. Then you simply add your favourite chopped fresh vegetables. Almost anything will do but I enjoy adding chopped celery, grated carrot and chopped sweet pepper. Use extra virgin olive oil as a dressing and you have a delicious salad ready to serve in minutes.

Ken Jones is the author of The Quinoa Cookbook. Find out the benefits of this super grain and how to cook it. Ken Has written many quinoa recipes that have been published on food expert blogs and websites worldwide.

Find out how you can enjoy quinoa in your daily diet http://www.quinoa-cookbook.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_H_Jones

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