What is quinoa?
Though not technically a grain, quinoa can substitute for nearly any grain in cooking. Actually the seed of a leafy plant, quinoa’s relatives include spinach, beets and Swiss chard. Due to its delicate taste and rich amounts of protein, iron, potassium and other vitamins and minerals, it is quite popular. It is also a good source of dietary fiber and is easily digested. Quinoa is an ancient crop that grows in poor soil, dry climates and even mountain altitudes. It is native to the Andes, but is also grown in South America and the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Although it can grow in arid conditions, it thrives best in well-drained soil. You should be able to find quinoa in health food stores and larger supermarkets. A quinoa grain is flat and has a pointed oval shape. The grains exist is several colorations, including yellow, red, brown and black. When cooked, quinoa expands to about three or four times its size. It also has a unique texture; the grain itself is smooth and creamy, but the
Technically a fruit of the Chenopodium family, quinoa packs more protein than any other grain, yielding more than twice the protein of rice and five times more than corn. Quinoa is high in lysine, an amino acid widely deficient among vegetable proteins, and is a good complement to the amino acid structure of most legumes, being naturally high in both methionine and cystine. It has less carbohydrate than any other grain beside corn, and a 6% fat content which gives it a pleasant nutty flavor. In Peru and Bolivia where most of the quinoa in the world is cultivated and eaten, it is boiled whole, like rice, ground into flour for breads and cakes and simmered as a cereal. The leaves of the plant are eaten as a vegetable. The stalks are burned as fuel, and the water leftover from washing the grain before it is cooked is used for shampoo. The quinoa plant is extremely hardy, thriving in agricultural environments where corn and wheat normally perish. Cultivated in the U.S., mostly in Colorado,
