Quinoa Revisited

So let’s get back to the quinoa kerfuffle. Well not so much a kerfuffle but more like a foofaraw. Or really it was just me being ridiculous…

Who knew that not all quinoas are created equal? I didn’t. It doesn’t make any sense. The times I’ve made quinoa I’ve used Ancient Harvest brand (comes in a turquoise box). For my tabouleh quinoa I got some from Whole Foods in their bulk section. Both are organic. Both come from Boliva. But the pot I steamed up from WF was light, fluffy, very non-swamp like.  It had a nutty flavor and a tender texture more like rice. The tabouleh was great. I cooked up 1 cup of quinoa. Once cooked I tossed it in a large bowl with a peeled and seeded cucumber, a wodge of flat leaf parsley, a smaller wodge of curly parsley, big handful mint (all herbs coarsely chopped), some very thinly sliced green onions (I think it was about 3). I mixed together ¼ cup olive oil and ¼ lemon juice (some s&p) and tossed the dressing over the salad. Pretty easy and so fresh and deelish.

Even something as simple
as tabouleh makes a mess in
the kitchen

(“What?” you say. “No tomatoes?”  I took a pledge to not eat tomatoes until they are in season. When are they in season? When they start harvesting them at The Farm or when I harvest them from my garden. Barbara Kingsolver writes about eating in season in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. At first it was hard but then I didn't even think about "missing out". Just think how awesome that first bite of summer tomato will be.)

My friend Manny suggested quinoa with currants, celery and a curry dressing. Stay tuned for “Quinoa Re-revisited!”

If at first you don't succeed....

Quinoa is the poster child for healthy eating nowadays. And rightly so since it is chock full of minerals AND  it’s a complete protein meaning it has all nine of the essential amino acids. For me, though, it’s the catfish of the grain world.  Catfish, in my humble estimation, always has a muddy underflavor more than likely due to the fact that it is a bottom feeder. The times I’ve eaten catfish, there’s this lingering taste of refuse with each bite I take. Needless to say, I don’t eat catfish on a regular basis…or really ever!

Quinoa has a kind of old gyms socks lingering taste that isn’t what I would call tasty. Bland would be a good adjective. Boring would be another. The aroma it gives off when cooking I would call….swampy. So why eat it? Because it’s such the darling of the real food world, I feel compelled to find a way that I can cook it and enjoy what I’m eating.

I subscribe to a blog 101 Cookbooks. Heidi  Swanson takes awesome photos of her food, has traveled the world, has written cookbooks so I consider her an  authority on vegetarian cooking. Last night I made her Lemon-scented Quinoa…garbanzo beans, quinoa, cilantro, red onion all tossed in a lemon-tahini dressing. Followed the recipe to the letter. Sigh. Didn’t like it. Was it the dressing? Was it the chunks of red onion that were overpowering even though I minced them? Was it the quinoa itself? More experimentation is needed.

Made quinoa for breakfast. I steamed up a pot full. Heated up soy milk with a cinnamon stick, currants, pinch of salt and a squeeze of honey. Poured this over the quinoa and topped with walnuts. Big sigh. Didn’t like it. Maybe some more salt and honey would help? Added those and still not a happy breakfast experience.  Maybe quinoa isn’t a breakfast grain? It lacks the creaminess of oatmeal. It lacks the nutty hearty loveliness of barley or groats. My guess is that because quinoa is gluten free, the starch found in other grains (which adds the creaminess) is missing. It felt like eating large grains of sand…from the beach of a swampy river bed. Ok, I realize I’m being a bit ridiculous but I’m just trying to be honest.

At the farmer’s market today I got the fixins for tabouleh. I love tabouleh. I’ve made it with barley, brown rice and the traditional bulgur. Maybe the earthy flavor and sandy texture of the quinoa will pair well with the parsley, mint and lemon. Let’s hope so. I’ll post again on this subject.