Quinoa - how to prepare?

How do you prepare quinoa?
When we are confronted with a new and relatively unknown ingredient , for our regions,  we naturally wonder what the  best way  is to prepare it . Of course it is stated on the packaging how we should do that, but it is not always said that this way will actually produce the most  tasteful  result.

Moreover, there are of course all kinds of quinoa products such as quinoa flour and quinoa flakes . So how do you prepare it?

So it didn't hurt to list all these preparations and the various applications ??

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Everything about preparing quinoa:

.Quinoa grain cooking - video
.Prepare quinoa flakes
.Use quinoa flour
.Make puffed quinoa


Boiling quinoa grains
This is the uncooked raw quinoa that you can find in almost any supermarket or health food store. You can serve it in the same way as rice, potatoes or couscous, but you can also make a nice breakfast with some fruit or vegetable yogurt. Per person there is usually 75 grams of quinoa, so 300 grams for 4 people with a complete meal with vegetables.

The - in my opinion - best method and all kinds of info you see in this video (in which I do not pronounce the word 'quinoa' ??correctly, woehaha!)


Prepare quinoa flakes
Quinoa flakes are crushed quinoa seeds. You can boil the flakes in water in the same way as you prepare oatmeal. Ideal for a gluten-free breakfast. Super tasty with some vegetable yogurt and pieces of fresh fruit (bananas, strawberries, berries, etc.).

You can also use quinoa flakes for breading tofu and seitan , for example . You simply make a paste of water (or soy milk) and some flour, roll the seitan, tofu or vegetables through it, and then get them through a plate of quinoa flakes. Then bake it in a pan or in the oven until you have a golden brown crust.

Quinoa flour is very suitable as a binder or as a substitute for flour in cakes and bread . Here too, the fact that quinoa is gluten free is another plus (other options include  millet and buckwheat flour). You use it in recipes in the same proportion as other flour. Easy enough!

Make puffed quinoa
Puffed quinoa
You can also buy puffed quinoa ready-made, but you can also do it yourself. Although; I readily admit that my first attempts were rather disastrous??

Puffed quinoa is best compared to puffed rice. Nice and crispy and airy. My wife in particular loves it and regularly eats it for breakfast.

The combination of puffed quinoa and chocolate is also delicious. Puff the quinoa as described below, melt some fondant chocolate and stir in the quinoa. Allow to cool slightly and make into balls. Let cool and huppa ... delicious chocolates for tea or coffee!

How do you make puffed quinoa yourself?

Do the same as when cooking quinoa; rinse the quinoa a few hours in advance under cold running water and drain until it is dry again.
Take a saucepan with a thick bottom and heat a tbsp of sunflower oil on high heat. As soon as the oil starts to smoke, add the quinoa and place the lid on the pan.
Leave the fire on the maximum and slide the pan back and forth. You can now hear the quinoa pellets cracking, splashing and jumping . Keep moving with the pan.
Remove the pan from the heat as soon as there is no more splashing. Your puffed quinoa is ready!
I admit that this operation may need a few resits. A lot depends on how thick the bottom of your pan is, what type of stove you use (gas goes smoother than electric), and whether you have let the oil get hot enough. So it requires some fingerspitzengefühl and patience . But then you have something??

Good luck and tasty!