Quinoa, The Super Protein Wholegrain

I still remember when the first time I got to eat quinoa, I was really excited—ꟷit felt like an achievement. I used to think that quinoa was difficult to find because I had never seen it anywhere before, and that just made me even more curious about it. I had no idea how it would taste like, nor its texture, until I joined a healthy catering program. It was just simply cooked with water, unseasoned, and used as a side dish. Despite that, I was already in love from the first mouthfulꟷespecially knowing that it is highly nutritious.

An Eminent Superfood

Quinoa is a pseudo-cereal known for its high nutritional content, especially protein. It can be said as a complete meal itself. It is gluten-free (thus, suitable for people with gluten intolerance), non-GMO and usually grown organically. Moreover, it is often used as a carbohydrate source for weight-loss purposes, or just to experiment on different types of carbs in a healthy diet. There are three main types of quinoa: red, white and black.

Quinoa is an excellent plant-based source of protein. A cup of cooked quinoa contains  8 grams of protein, with all the essential amino acids. Most plant foods lack of certain amino acids, such as lysine. However, quinoa is special, making it the best plant-based protein source. It is called as a "complete protein", hence its protein content resembles of those from animals. It is absolutely great for a meat-free diet.

Quinoa is very high in fiber. With 12 grams of dietary fiber per 100g of uncooked quinoa, it has much higher fiber content than most grains and it certainly has a low glycemic index (53). Most of it is insoluble fiber, however it still contains a good amount of soluble fiber, which is found to give many benefits to the body.

Quinoa contains high amount of plant antioxidants. Antioxidants are molecules which are important to keep our body in good health. It prevents inflammation and neutralise free radicals, hence preventing cancer as well. The most significant types of antioxidants in quinoa are the two types of flavonoids, quercetin and kaempferol. These molecules are found to give beneficial effects on body health, and they are found in large amounts in quinoa.

Furthermore, quinoa is found to contain many essential minerals such as magnesium, zinc and iron. It also gives positive affects to metabolic health, and proven to be able to reduce the negative effects of a high sugar diet and lower cholesterol levels when introduced to the diet.

So, start adding quinoa to your diet to get all its benefits!

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Later I realised that quinoa is actually not difficult to find at all. In Jakarta, it can be easily spotted in large supermarkets which sell mostly imported products (Food Hall, Ranch Market, KemChicks, etc.) or in organic food stores. However, it is usually pretty expensive here and it makes me wanna cry everytime I see the price label :')

Anyways, first time I bought quinoa was a small package (250g) of white quinoa as it is the type of quinoa which is most common around. Let me tell the point of the story: I was REALLY PROUD to have my first package of quinoa and I could finally try cook it by myself.

Cooking the Perfect Quinoa

Either as a side dish or tossed with a few other ingredients to make a salad, quinoa is a great ingredient to use in different types of dishes. Quinoa has a delicate, nutty flavour and a perfectly cooked quinoa will be light and fluffy, with sort of a soft-crunchy texture. To achieve a delicious quinoa dish, it must be cooked in the right way and with the correct choice of ingredients alongside it. So here I am to share how to cook quinoa perfectly. Not too firm, not mushy... just perfect.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa

• 2 cups water (or low-sodium chicken broth)

• Generous pinch of salt (omit if using broth)

Instructions

1. Firstly, rinse the quinoa. Sometimes, quinoa might taste a little bitter due to the compounds coating their surfaces. Eventhough most of the quinoa sold in packages has been rinsed, still it is safer to give a rinse before cooking.

2. Into a saucepan, add quinoa, water and salt, or broth. It is important to add salt when cooking grains and legumes, even potatoes. It prevents the quinoa to taste bland as well as balancing the nutty flavour of it, hence helping the quinoa to cook better.

3. On medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a boil. Cover the pan, turn to low heat and let it simmer. This will take around 15-20 minutes until the quinoa is fully cooked. You will know it is done when nearly all of the water has been absorbed but the quinoa is still wet, not dry.

4. To finish, fluff the quinoa through with a fork. Now it is ready to use to create amazing dishes!

#quinoa #wholegrain #healthfacts #cookingtips