Comments on: Quinoa – just not lovable

By: Judy - New Grain Recipes

Judy - New Grain Recipes — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:49:00 +0000

Lol! Leia, sounds like quinoa has its good points and bad points. Maybe it is just more lovable as a whole grain.

By: Leia

Leia — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:35:49 +0000

I have always liked cooked quinoa. I used to eat red quinoa flakes for breakfast much like oatmeal. I enjoy spouted quinoa as well. So I thought quinoa flour would be just as good. I was sure wrong when I tried to make cornmeal muffins mixed with quinoa flour. I made a whole batch, I even used molasses to try and cut the flavour. The batch was terrible. No one would eat them. It wasn’t the cornmeal that was bad it definitely was the quinoa flour. The flour is just too strong. I can’t even think about what would have worked to make them eatable. Good thing I made them on compost pick-up night!

By: hazeleyes

hazeleyes — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:07:18 +0000

I used quinoa as substitute for cracked wheat in tabouli salad; we loved it, but I used a recipe from the internet that seemed more “authentic” than the tablouli I’ve had in the US. I had some in London that was more like the recipe I made – a little quinoa, 3 bunches of parsley (a lot!), a touch of mint, quite a lot of very finely chopped onion, a little garlic, diced cucumber, diced tomato, lemon juice and olive oil, cumin, I believe, and I think I added ground coriander seed. It really was wonderful, but tabouli is a lot of trouble, a big commitment to lots of chopping.

I’ve served quinoa as a grain side dish with sauteed chopped nuts and mushrooms. It was good but the guinua had a grassy note that we didn’t like. It’s possible that I didn’t know at that time that it requires a lot of rinsing before cooking, so that might account for the off-flavor.

I haven’t yet seen quinoa flour, and I don’t think the grain unground is a substitute for other non-gluten flours, because I don’t think it would behave the same way flours behave (absorbancy, reaction with protein, etc.).

Does anyone have experience with quinoa who can comment? I have lots of cooking experience but am new to g-f.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:59:30 +0000

OK Misa, you just gave that lonely bag of quinoa flour on my counter a new lease on life! I’ll try it in a blend. I do notice that some of the flours with more *personality* do better blended with rice flour, etc. or used with herbs and/or stronger flavors like chocolate. That is a good suggestion!

Quinoa as couscous also sounds like something worth trying. I miss couscous. I’ll report back on how it goes!

By: misa ramirez

misa ramirez — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:38:53 +0000

I actually like quinoa! We like the pasta MUCH better than the rice or corn pasta. It’s far more similar to wheat pasta, IMO.

I use quinoa flour, mixed with white rice flour and few seasonings, to coat fish for homemade fishsticks. They are yummy!

And I just tried a chocolate cake recipe from the GlutenFreeGirl [recipe was in Martha Stewart Living] that combined quinoa flour, almond flour/meal, and brown rice flour. The cake was pretty good. Nice texture and good cocoa flavor. That might change your mind. I think maybe it has to be combined with other things.

I did try it once [at a gluten free cooking class] prepared as a breakfast cereal. It was cooked like oatmeal, sweetened, and peaches were added. It was pretty good. I haven’t tried it as a rice replacement type dish, but I bet it would be similar to couscous.