Saturday 25 January 2014

Who's Keen for Quinoa?

Lazy Girl A and I have been eating a lot of quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) lately (and I really mean a lot we both seem to have difficulty making small amounts of the stuff. Oops!). Consequently we have also had a lot of comments from people who creepily stare at our lunch such as.... 
- What is that?
- What does it taste like?
- How do you cook it?
- Why do you eat that? 
- Why do you and Lazy Girl A always have identical lunches? 



Never fear, Lazy Girls are here to answer all this and more about the mysterious quinoa. 




What is it? 
Quinoa looks like a grain but it's actually a seed. It's incredibly versatile and has amazing health benefits (keep reading to find out what they are). It is grown in South America and is readily available in supermarkets and health food stores. It comes in a few different forms such as white, red and black. You can get puffed quinoa, flavoured quinoa, rice and quinoa and quinoa flakes. I also found pasta made with quinoa at the supermarket this week. I'll let you know how that goes. The list of quinoa uses and varieties goes on and on. 

What does it taste like?
I always liken quinoa to couscous in texture but can be used in a similar way to rice.  I absolutely love eating it. It tastes great and certainly doesn't fall into the category of 'if it's healthy it probably tastes disgusting' (yeah I'm looking at you tofu*) 


How do you cook it?
It's really important to wash quinoa before cooking it otherwise it will have a really bitter taste. You cook it in a similar way to rice. 1 cup of quinoa to 1 1/2 cups of water - boil, simmer and let the quinoa absorb the water. (Most packets of quinoa will have clear instructions for you to follow) 
After you've cooked some quinoa you can use it in so many different ways. 
- In salads
- In soups
- As an accompaniment to curries or stews instead of rice
- I've made white sauce using quinoa flakes to use in lasagne (Check out Theresa Cutter's recipes for white sauce 10 ways here) 
- In rissoles
- As a porridge for breakfast
- You can often find puffed quinoa in breakfast cereals.

Why do you eat that?
Quinoa is often referred to as a Superfood and it is easy to see why. It is versatile but it has a lot of health benefits
- high in protein so it fills you up for longer 
- it's gluten free
- it has a lot of amazing nutrients such as iron, vitamin B, calcium, magnesium and vitamin E
- it is really high in fibre
- it contains lysine for tissue growth and repair


Why do Lazy girl A and I have identical lunches? 

Um...we are lazy!! 

Seriously though, we share making lunches (yes we are that lazy!) So I make them one week and Lazy Girl A the next week. Have you thought about getting a lunch buddy at work? It saves a lot of time and stress and when you make WAY too much quinoa like we always do you have someone to share it with. :-) 


So, who is keen to try Quinoa??? Let us know your favourite quinoa recipes. We'd love to try them out to! 


Lazy Girl F xx

*Lazy Girls Fitness is a tofu friendly site. Lazy Girl A is a fan of tofu. The negative opinions on tofu are completely those of Lazy Girl F alone. We are not tofu haters on this site! All tofu is welcome. 

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