| |
| Find a nutrition house near you |
|
 |
KEEN ON QUINOA: The mother lode of whole food comes to the table Posted April 5, 2010
About six years ago, when Patricia Green was hunting for a way to punch up the nutrition in the meals she cooked for her family, a vegetarian friend suggested quinoa.
At the time she knew next to nothing about the mysterious Peruvian native grain, which is essentially a seed. She soon learned that getting the superfood into her family's daily diet was as easy as cooking rice.
"Once I started using it, I realized how versatile it was," she said last week from her home in Alberta, Canada.
Over the past three years, Green and her sister, Carolyn Hemming, developed a quinoa cookbook, "Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood" (Whitecap Books). The book was recently released in Canada and will be available in the United States next month. Green and Hemming talked about quinoa and about their book in a phone interview last Wednesday. Hemming is a marathon athlete who lives outside Toronto. Green is an "outdoorsy" mother of two girls -- ages 8 and 10 -- who also works for an organic food company. Many of the book's recipes were tested and approved by children, including Green's two daughters, who at first were cautious about the Q-food. Quinoa, by the way, is pronounced KEEN-wah.
The cookbook idea sprouted because at the time Green couldn't find recipes for quinoa. She came up with her own, often incorporating the grain into the family's favorite dishes. She developed more than 170 recipes, including appetizers, snacks, main courses and even baby food.
In the course of unraveling the story behind quinoa, the sisters talked to quinoa scientists from Colorado and growers and distributors in Bolivia. Although quinoa is a recent discovery for North Americans, it has been grown in the Andes of South America for more than 5,000 years.
It was "revered as the mother grain of the Incas," Green said.
Quinoa is known as a superfood because it is packed with protein and contains all nine essential amino acids, including lysine, which is absent from most grains. It is low on the glycemic index, high in fiber and gluten-free. Quinoa provides more iron than most grains, high levels of potassium and B vitamins, and it is easily digestible.
"The Incans fed it to their children, who experienced extremely low rates of infant mortality. Their children were strong and healthy," Green said.
When the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, "they called quinoa 'devil food' and tried to eradicate it," Green said. They also saw "how strong it made the natives. The Inca warriors made war balls of animal fat mixed with quinoa to sustain them for weeks in war," Hemming added. The Spaniards banished quinoa crops, favoring barley, potatoes and corn. After that, "the only quinoa was grown in little pockets in the mountains." The people "were able to preserve it," Green said, "which is why we have it today."
The plant comes from the "goosefoot" family, which is related to lambs quarters, spinach and chard. Its seeds are grain-like in texture and as easy to cook as rice and can be substituted for -- or blended with -- rice or pasta in many dishes.
Today, most quinoa is still grown in the Andes Mountains in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. It is grown on a much smaller scale in Canada and Colorado, with mixed results. Quinoa grows in drought conditions, but it likes cool nights and warm days. "You have to have a dry year to have a great crop," Green said.
Most quinoa sold in local grocery stores comes from Bolivia. You can find it in health-food sections in bulk and in boxes in most supermarkets. It comes in many colors, but the most prevalent is white, or golden. I found both a red and a black quinoa in the health market at Hy-Vee. The cost varies from $3.99 a pound for bulk -- at Gerbes and Hy-Vee -- to $6.99 a pound for organic, free-trade black quinoa. Store quinoa like rice, covered in a cool, dry place.
White quinoa tends to be milder and buttery, and the darker colors seem a bit nuttier, more like wild rice.
Leigh Lockhart at Main Squeeze Natural Foods Cafe serves quinoa in summer salads, winter soups and on vegetable plates. "It's very forgiving," she said. "I like it better than bulgur for tabbouleh."
It's hard to mess up quinoa, which cooks in about 15 minutes -- one cup of quinoa to two cups of water. If you overcook it, it will just be softer and fluffier; if you undercook, it will be al dente and nuttier. Just make sure you rinse the seeds before cooking it. Quinoa seeds are coated with bitter saphonins that protect the seed from predators in the field.
To remove the saphonins, pour the quinoa into a fine strainer and run water through it until the water is no longer sudsy. Some boxed quinoa comes prewashed. I rinse it anyway, just to make sure any bitter residue is washed away.
The secret to getting more flavor into this fairly bland food is cooking it in stock. It also can be toasted in a skillet for five minutes before cooking to boost flavor. Hemming -- who, as an athlete, often eats on the go -- likes to add quinoa to smoothies for a protein boost. Green adds quinoa to her children's yogurt. Try quinoa as a hot breakfast cereal. It can be added to pancakes, cakes and crepes. Add it to chili, meatballs or veggie burgers.
Among Hemming and Green's favorite recipes from the cookbook is a gluten-free fresh cucumber and dill toasted almond salad.
Our own quinoa experiments yielded tahini tofu with black quinoa, reminiscent of the Lotus Plate, a former standard at the Main Squeeze. If you like the flavors of Morocco, try a lemony Moroccan-inspired cauliflower tagine over white quinoa, one of my new family favorites. The squash and red pepper quinoa recipe could easily be altered using vegetables in season.
BASIC QUINOA
2 cups water or stock
1 cup quinoa
Rinse quinoa thoroughly, either by using a fine-mesh strainer or by running fresh water over the quinoa in a pot. Drain excess water. Place quinoa and water or stock in a 1-1/2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until all of the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when all the "grains" have turned from white to transparent and the spiral-like germ has separated.
Makes: 3 cups.
TAHINI TOFU OVER BLACK QUINOA
3 cups cooked quinoa (see recipe for basic quinoa)
1 pound firm tofu
12 ounces fresh baby spinach
3 green onions, thinly sliced
For the tahini sauce:
1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup water; use as needed to thin sauce
Prepare the sauce by combining all sauce ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth, adding enough water to yield a thick but pourable sauce.
Transfer the sauce to a large saucepan, and add the tofu.
Stir in the tofu until well-coated with tahini sauce. Stir in the cooked quinoa.
For serving, lay down a bed of fresh spinach and scoop the tofu mix over the top. Garnish with fresh scallions.
Note: We used the seasoned tofu that Leigh Lockhart sells to go at Main Squeeze; it's reliably firm and flavorful. In fact, this recipe is based upon an old favorite from her past menu: the delicious Lotus Plate. This dish is even more satisfying when you mix short-grain brown rice with the quinoa.
Servings: 2-4 servings
CAULIFLOWER TAGINE OVER WHITE QUINOA
1 cup quinoa
2 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons peanut oil or olive oil
1 large onion, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small preserved lemons, seeds removed and chopped (see
|
|
