Festive Quinoa

I am truly Quinoa's number 1 fan nowadays! I love cooking it and enjoy it as my new found rice replacement. I thought it would be great to make it for the holidays. I experimented cooking it with some spices and see if it would work. I also added dried cranberries and raisins, pomegranate seeds and cilantro to the mix. I was truly happy with the result.  The raisins and cranberries added sweetness to the quinoa and you taste just a little hint of the spices. The pomegranate seeds gave extra crunch and the lovely cilantro added some lemony-mint flavor too! It was truly wonderful! The flavors just worked together so well. You can serve this warm, room temp or cold - whichever you prefer. I think it's great as a side dish for Roasted Turkey or Chicken. Needless to say - it's colorful and festive enough for the holidays! So, without further ado - here's our latest Quinoa creation.

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked Quinoa (I used a blend of the white and colored quinoa)

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups water

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

Procedure

First, rinse the quinoa. Place the 1 cup uncooked quinoa in a fine sieve or strainer. Using cold running water, rinse it for about a couple of minutes. Drain really well.

Place the drained quinoa into the rice cooker or a sauce pan (big enough to accomodate about 3 cups of liquid). Stir in the cranberries, raisins, the spices and salt. Mix everything.

Pour in the 2 cups of water. Give it a gentle stir.

If using a rice cooker - how easy! - Cover then push the cook button and then leave it to cook. It will automatically turn to warm mode when it's done. Turn the cooker off and let the quinoa sit for about 10-15 minutes.

If using the stove top - first, bring to a rolling boil using medium heat. Once it begins to boil hard  (watch out 'cause you don't want liquid spilling all over) turn the heat to low. Cover then continue to simmer until the liquid has evaporated and the quinoa is tender approximately 15-18 minutes. A timer would be handy so you don't forget. Turn off the heat. Remove pan from heat and let it sit covered for about 10-15 minutes.

Fluff the quinoa gently with a fork to separate the seeds. You can transfer the quinoa to a bigger bowl to make mixing the rest of the ingredients easier. Mix in the cilantro and half the pomegranate seeds.  You can serve it as is or if you wish, you can form the quinoa mix into a mound - see photo below. Sprinkle the rest of the pomegranate seeds (and perhaps some extra dried cranberries and raisins)  around the mound. You can sprinkle a few more chopped cilantro on top to even the colors. Serve with your main dish. Yummilicious!

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How to Cook Quinoa

I love rice!!! I am Asian and Filipino so, my country men and myself, normally eat rice 3x a day and that is not a joke! We have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, not to mention as a snack (think - Bahaw - cold rice) and when you add a little sugar/sweetener (like honey) with it - yes, it becomes dessert. While, I will forever be loyal to both brown and white rice - I have been looking for an alternative to them for variety's sake. Also, if  you're not careful with rice - you can honestly gain a lot of pounds - and not so much because of its high carb content but because (based on my experience) anything you eat with rice - especially curry! - you tend to eat more. It's like sugar - you always crave for more. Because rice is such a wonderful side dish that pretty much can be eaten with any main dish - yes, including noodles (we Filipinos are known to eat spaghetti with rice!) then chances are you'll eat more.

So, enter Quinoa - now my rice alternative. I will not go into the details of how much of a super-food Quinoa is or even debate whether a quinoa is a grain or a seed - you can google all this and find more information elsewhere. All I know is that I found a healthy option for a side dish (apart from rice and potatoes) which I actually like and enjoy! It's not as soft as rice but to me it has more of a couscous feel about it and quite nutty too, but when you cook it properly (no more funny taste) it truly absorbs the flavor of whatever sauce or dressing you add to it and that is such a big plus for me. This way it is similar to rice so it's my perfect rice alternate.

Anyway, here's how I usually cook my Quinoa. Just like how you cook rice actually - except that I add something to it to make it taste better or at least not have a funny after taste. I learned this through a friend who told me this is how to have a better tasting Quinoa. After she made it, I was sold to Quinoa. Now, I can experiment and add Quinoa to salads or just make it into a simple dish without any further enhancements - just like plain old rice. So next time, I fancy a stew and don't want to have rice with it - I have my Quinoa to the rescue!

A rice cooker would be so handy for this - it cooks on its own pace and turns off automatically when it's done so you don't have to monitor it every minute as it cooks. But if you don't have one it's fine, the stove top is always a good place to cook this too!

Ingredients

1 cup Quinoa (Take your pick - white or golden, red, or black or a combo)
2 cups water
Rind/Peel of one orange, chopped or if you want extra citrus flavor - grate the rind of 1 orange and just stir the orange zest in.
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

Note: The ratio is 1:2 - 1 cup Quinoa to 2 cups water - just remember this when you want to increase the Quinoa to more than 1 cup. One cup of dried quinoa yields about 3 cups cooked. If you want a crunchier quinoa though - you can decrease the water by half a cup. Like my rice I like my Quinoa soft rather than crunchy but it's a matter of preference. :-)


Procedure

First, rinse the quinoa. This is quite an important process so don't omit this. I am not saying that the store-bought Quinoa is dirty but it is good to rinse the quinoa well to improve its taste. Rinsing the quinoa helps in removing its natural coating called saponin which gives the quinoa that funny bitter taste!

Place the 1 cup quinoa in a fine sieve or strainer. Using cold running water, rinse it for about 1-2 minutes. Rub the quinoa between your fingers to assist in removing the saponin. Drain really well. Others recommend toasting the quinoa after this on a dry pan to remove all excess water but I find this to be unnecessary based on my experience. As I said, I don't mind if the Quinoa is a little softer rather than crunchy.

Place the drained quinoa into the rice cooker or a sauce pan (big enough to accomodate about 3 cups  of liquid). Pour the 2 cups of water. Insert the chopped orange rind - they will float, but that's not a problem or stir in the orange zest. You can season it with a little salt if you wish. No big deal, I actually don't season it, so it's fine.

If using a rice cooker - how easy! - Cover then push the cook button and then leave it to cook. It will automatically turn to warm mode when it's done. 

If using the stove top - first, bring to a rolling boil using medium heat. Once it begins to boil (watch out 'cause you don't want liquid spilling all over) turn the heat to the lowest setting.  Cover then continue to simmer until the liquid has evaporated and the quinoa is tender approximately 15-18 minutes. A timer would be handy so you don't forget. Turn off the heat. Remove pan from heat and let it sit covered for about 10 minutes.

Thereafter, remove the orange rind if this is what you used and then fluff the quinoa gently with a fork, and serve.

Cooked quinoa is so versatile and can be used as ingredient for salads, even as a porridge or in making pilafs and as a regular side dish, much like white rice because it absorbs the flavor of whatever you put into it! Perfect!

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