Quinoa: Supergrain of the Future

TheWife got on a "weird food" binge at the store yesterday, and brought home a cool new food. It's called Quinoa (keen-WAH). It's a grain, kind of like cous-cous or rice, but crunchy like the tips of sprouts at the Souper Salad bar. Quinoa has it's roots (ha ha) in South American Incan civilizations. It dates back to 5,000 years ago, but has been "rediscovered" and is making a comeback in the United States.

Some facts:
- Quinoa contains more protein than any other grain; an average of 16.2 percent.
- Quinoa's protein is a complete protein, with an essential amino acid balance close to the ideal ... similar to milk!
- Quinoa is easy on the stomach and easy to prepare

This was a really cool thing to eat. The particular variety we ate was the red variety. It starts out as tiny little pebbles, similar in size to poppy seeds. But when cooked, they grow to the size of green lentils and they release their germ stem (the tiny yellow string you see in the picture). You cook Quinoa just like you would cook white rice from Mahatma. And it's as versatile as rice. It can be made into porridge, stir fry, tabouleh, or pilaf. '

We cooked it plain and ate it with chicken. A very healthy and satisfying meal. Here are some other tidbits from the Quinoa website:

1. It’s a VEGETARIAN solution, a balanced-amino-acid source of high quality protein.
2. It’s a SENIOR solution, a high-iron food that raises the hematocrit, delivers more oxygen to the brain, fights senility.
3. It’s a DIABETIC solution, a very low-glycemic-index cereal type food.
4. It’s a TASTE SOLUTION, quite delicious. I used it in a purple cabbage & romaine & onion salad, with a stalk of chopped celery & celery leaves, salt & pepper and a pinch of cumin, with ranch dressing. By the way, it MUST be purple cabbage rather than green.