Day One Hundred and Ninety - Quinoa

Dear all
After a few days of lovely meals and jalapeno poppers at The Firehouse, I decided to cleanse the system and cook up a meal of Quinoa ( pronounced, Keeenoi) for Darren and I. Quinoa is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds and is closely related [bizarrely] to beets and tumbleweed.


Quinoa has been used for centuries, most prominently in the Pre-Colombian, Andean civilisations. In contemporary times, this crop has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as it has an extremely high protein content at around 12%-18%. It is also full of fibre, phosphorus, iron and magnesium. One might say it is a 'super food'. I also heard along the grapevine that NASA are considering considering quinoa as a crop for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System beyond the stratosphere.

Anyway, I was merely interested in an unusual yet healthy snack, so bought a box from Metro and decided to give it a go.

I must say, in its raw form it doesn't look much. Just a bag of small, hard, tawny seeds that scream out 'Health Food'.

I was instructed to 'thoroughly rinse' the grains in a fine mesh sieve. Well, that got me thwarted at the first hurdle as I was unable to find even a 'large' mesh sieve in our cupboards so I plumped for a strange contraption with moving arms, that resembled Darth Vadar's sleeping quarters.

I then boiled the quinoa in 3 cups of vegetable stock for around 15 minutes as by that time it had quadrupled in size and each little nodule resembled a small sprout.

I chucked in a load of tomato, pepper, coriander, peas, garlic, oil and cider vinegar, mixed it all together and there it was: My Quinoa Salad.

When Darren got home, he immediately noted the smell of cooking which had enveloped his condo however when introduced to the dish he exclaimed, 'That looks healthy'. To be honest, that is essentially what the dish was, healthy, nutritious but odd in texture and ever so slightly, slimy. Not my favorite to date but I am sure will be very good for us!