Cooked Quinoa
Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is gaining popularity as a healthy, high-protein, gluten-free alternative grain. It’s light, delicious and extremely versatile. Quick and easy to cook as well. Here are the basic cooking instructions for quinoa.
Cooking quinoa is similar to cooking brown rice using the absorption method. One cup of dry quinoa will make 2-3 cups cooked. Don’t worry about making extra though, if you have leftover quinoa it makes a delicious muesli or porridge for the next morning.
Cooking Quinoa:
First, measure out the dry quinoa. The proportion of dry quinoa to cooked quinoa is about 1:3, so 1 cup of dried quinoa will cook up to be about 3 cups.
Rinse the quinoa well under cold water and drain. It’s handy to use a fine mesh sieve for rinsing.
Put the rinsed quinoa into a saucepan and add cold water. The quinoa to water ratio is 1:2. In other words, use 2 cups of water for every cup of quinoa. Toss in a dash of salt.
Cover and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat down to a simmer, and set the lid just ajar, to prevent boiling over. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. The quinoa goes a bit transparent when it’s cooked, except for a little spiral sprout.
If the quinoa is tender but there’s excess water in the bottom of the saucepan just leave the lid off completely for a few minutes until the water evaporates. When done turn off the heat, put the lid on and let sit for about 5 minutes.
Use a fork to fluff up the quinoa and serve.
Suggestions:
Try this light and delicious Quinoa Salad recipe
You know, I live in Peru, but have never cooked quinoa – we usually buy it already cooked with apples, quince and maca, with a texture like a very thin porridge, and it’s normally used as a breakfast drink.
I guess I could do this right in the rice cooker and serve it instead of rice alongside our dishes!
Hi Kelly, it’s so cool to hear about the way Peruvians use quinoa, and maca. Oh I love maca!!! That drink sounds delicious. And it’s interesting because I’ve spent time in Colombia and loved a drink they made from oats. I think it was called Avena, which is also one of the latin/botanical names for oats. I never would have thought of making a drink from a grain at that point in time, but it was delicious, and now I see “oat milk” in stores. I guess it’s similar for quinoa. I have been seeing in my stats that some people are searching for recipes using quinoa in smoothies and shakes, but I wasn’t sure if they were looking for raw recipes or those using cooked quinoa. I’m not sure that it would be a good idea with raw quinoa (even sprouted), but I can see the cooked quinoa as you describe being really delicious and filling. I’ll have to stock up on quinoa and start experimenting!
I think you should be able to cook the quinoa in a rice cooker on similar settings that you would use for white rice. You must try it, quinoa is so delicious. It’s not as “heavy” in your stomach afterwards as rice is, and it’s yummy both for savory and sweet, porridge-like recipes. Better for you than rice too! It’s a superfood. Peru is the home of many wonderful superfoods, I think it would be a great place to live!
I was in Peru recently and had an awsome drink/thin porrige made with quinoa and banana? I’ve been trying to find a recipe for it, but so far I havent found it
Hi Steve, I’ve heard of that drink too, very recently, from someone living in Peru. I definitely want to try it too. I’m going to try to get or create the recipe. I wish I was able to taste it, then I’d be able to recreate it. I’ve had something similar in Colombia, it was based on oats rather than quinoa, but delicious as well. I’d like to find or create recipes for that too.
i would like to grind quinoa into flour with my vitamix. Do i have to wash the grains and let them dry or dry them in the dehydrator before grinding them?
Hi Rita. I have used just the dry grains, ground but that was for a recipe that required quite a small quantity. It was fine though. A better way, if you can, would be to wash and dehydrate them, and even better still would be to sprout and dehydrate them. To sprout them I’ve found the best tasting way is to rinse them and soak for about 4 hours. Then drain and let them sit for 4-6 hours or so. Then dehydrate at 105% or below. Then you have extra nutritious and digestible quinoa flour.
Hi Rita, I would soak them then dry them in the dehydrator. Otherwise the flour could come out bitter…….. You can soak it for about 20 min, completely submerged. Good luck!
Hi,
talking about the quinoa and manzana drink you find in Peru but Bolivia also, yes it is one of the most addictive one can find. i tried to replicate it many times but since i know for sure that the quinoa should not be blended together with other ingredients, does anyone know how to make the quinoa mix properly so that it floats like in the following pic?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdseyeview/2335563620/
many thanks in advance!