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Quinoa – my new love

Posted in All things food, Recipes, tagged , , , , on September 10, 2013| 14 Comments »

Yes, I have a new love.  Quinoa.

Minty, pea quinoa

Minty, pea quinoa

I don’t know where it has been for all of my life…. but this summer I have totally fallen in love with.  And I have to give MAJOR thanks to Cynthia at TheSolitaryCook for bringing this love into my life.  Cynthia is now my ‘go to’ person for anything in relation to quinoa.

Isn’t the blogsphere wonderful the way it can bring people from faraway places together?  Maybe one day Cynthia will come visit here, or I will get to visit her in Montana 🙂  A girl can dream.

I do remember having quinoa years ago – but my memory is of it being horrible!  Something to be avoided.

A couple of months back spurred on by Cynthia I tried her quinoa cakes – they were delicious.  I made a mess of making them in ‘cakes’ but the taste more than made up for my mess.

When Cynthia posted her lamb chops with minty quinoa of course I had to try it.  It is so so delicious.  It has become an ‘almost’ weekly dinner in this house – or will be while we still have a supply of our neighbour’s lamb chops.

I am reposting Cynthia’s recipe here…. with the adjustments of Imperial and Metric measurements to replace the cups.  Do also follow Cynthia’s instructions on cooking the lamb chops….. they are delicious too.

minty, pea quinoa

Minty, pea quinoa with lamb chops

Ingredients:

  • 7 oz./200 grms  Quinoa – plain or rainbow
  • 1 pt water
  • 5 oz/140 grms peas – fresh or frozen.
  • Greens of 2 scallions (or I’ve used a large bunch of chives)
  • 2 tsp fresh mint
  • 2 tsp fresh parsley
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 2/3 ozs Olive Oil
  • Sea Salt & Pepper

Method:

Firstly rinse your quinoa under cold running water.

Bring your 1 pt of water to boil, and pop in your quinoa.  Reduce to a simmer and cook gently for about 12 minutes.  Don’t let it get mushy.  If there is any water left in the pot when the quinoa is cooked, just drain it off.  Put the quinoa in a bowl and fluff it up a bit.

Cook your peas.  Chop your scallions or chives, fresh mint and fresh parsley.  Add all to the quinoa.

Drizzle over your olive oil and the lemon juice.

Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!  You will eat loads…. and it is a ‘super’ food, so it is good for you too!

Am I the only person to have lived this long without quinoa?

And if you’d like to learn more about the history and benefits of quinoa check out this article by Helen Nichols

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