Keep on quinoa

Keep on quinoa

STIR IT UP! by Mar­i­al­isa Calta

Quinoa is one of the happiest-looking foods around. I think it looks like happy, teeny bub­bles — Cham­pagne bubbles.

We all should be happy to have quinoa (“keen-wah”) on our plates. Kim Rizk, who wrote “Hay Day Coun­try Mar­ket Cook­book” (Work­man Pub­lish­ing, 1998), called quinoa “a nutri­tional won­der.” It’s a com­plete pro­tein, which means it con­tains all of the nine essen­tial amino acids. It is higher in pro­tein than rice, wheat or bar­ley. It is also high in cal­cium and riboflavin and is gluten-free. It’s “one of the old­est grains on the planet,” Rizk says; quinoa nour­ished the Incas and is still grown in the Andes.

Though Rizk (and most peo­ple) call it a grain, quinoa is not a grain at all. It is related to beets, spinach and chard instead of the grasses from which cereal grains come.

You may be more used to find­ing quinoa in restau­rants and at catered events than in your kitchen, which is a shame; it cooks up quickly and is no harder to make than rice. It’s also deli­cious, with a nutty fla­vor and appeal­ingly chewy texture.

Here’s how to cook it: Cover 1 cup uncooked quinoa in cold water and let soak about 10 min­utes. (Quinoa has a bit­ter coat­ing that is usu­ally removed after har­vest. The soak­ing is an extra pre­cau­tion to ensure there is no bit­ter residue.) Drain and rinse well. Place in a pot and cover with 2 cups cold water. Add 1/4 tea­spoon salt. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat to sim­mer and cook 15 min­utes, or until the quinoa seeds begin to open up and the liq­uid is absorbed. Remove from heat and let sit, cov­ered, for 10 min­utes. Fluff with a fork. You will have about 3 cups cooked quinoa.

You can sub­sti­tute cooked quinoa for bul­gur in tab­bouleh, eat it like oat­meal for break­fast, or use it as a fill­ing — along with veg­eta­bles, meats or cheeses —ùin wraps.

The recipes here come from Rizk’s book and an appeal­ing and com­plex nutri­tion book called “Must Have Been Some­thing I Ate” by Peggy Kot­sopou­los (Ocean­side Press, 2011). This book is a detailed and enter­tain­ing expla­na­tion of the con­nec­tion between the foods we eat and the way we feel. This book has only a few recipes, but they will help the reader turn the infor­ma­tion in the book into food on the plate.

Note: Roland Foods (www.rolandfoods.com) has come out with a line of fla­vored quinoa, includ­ing Roasted Gar­lic, Black Bean, Toasted Sesame Gin­ger and Lemon Curry.

MEDITERRANEAN QUINOA SALAD

Yield: 2 main-course serv­ings or 4 side-dish servings

2 cups cooked quinoa (from 2/3 cup uncooked; see cook­ing note, above)

1 cup grape toma­toes, halved

1/2 cup diced cucumber

1/2 cup kala­mata olives, pit­ted and chopped

1/2 red bell pep­per, stemmed, seeded and diced

1/4 cup crum­bled feta cheese (optional)

3 table­spoons extra vir­gin olive oil

1 tea­spoon dried oregano

1/2 tea­spoon sea salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Juice from 1/4 lemon, or to taste

Place all ingre­di­ents in a bowl and mix well. Refrig­er­ate before serving.

Recipe from “Must Have Been Some­thing I Ate” by Peggy Kot­sopou­los (Ocean­side Pub­lish­ing, 2011).

QUINOA-STUFFED MUSHROOMS

Yield: 4 servings

8 white or crem­ini mush­rooms (2 inches in diam­e­ter), caps and stems wiped clean

2 table­spoons wal­nut or olive oil

1 table­spoon unsalted butter

1 scant table­spoon minced garlic

1 small leek, white part only, washed and chopped (about 1/3 cup)

1/4 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed

1/2 cup chicken stock or canned broth

1 to 2 tea­spoons fresh lemon juice

2 table­spoons chopped walnuts

2 table­spoons chopped fresh Ital­ian (flatleaf) parsley

Pinch coarse (kosher) salt

Pre­heat oven to 425 degrees.

Sep­a­rate mush­room stems from the caps. Finely chop the stems, mea­sure out a gen­er­ous 1/3 cup and set side. (Dis­card any left­over stems or save for another use.)

Brush mush­room caps inside and out with 1 table­spoon of the oil. Arrange caps, open side up, on a bak­ing sheet.

Melt but­ter in a skil­let over medium-high heat. Add gar­lic, leek and reserved mush­room stems and saute until fra­grant and ten­der, 3 to 4 min­utes. Stir in the quinoa and chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and sim­mer until all the liq­uid is absorbed and the quinoa is ten­der, 8 to 10 min­utes. Stir in lemon juice to taste, then the wal­nuts and pars­ley, and sea­son with salt.

Using a tea­spoon, pack stuff­ing inside the mush­room caps, mound­ing it high. Driz­zle the remain­ing table­spoon of oil over the mush­rooms and roast until they are hot and fork-tender, about 10 min­utes. Serve hot.

Recipe from “Hay Day Coun­try Mar­ket Cook­book” by Kim Rizk (Work­man Pub­lish­ing, 1998).

Posted by Guest 2 Columnist on Jul 19 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.