Among supporters of healthy eating, quinoa is becoming increasingly popular - an unusual South American croup, which people also often call rice quinoa. It has a subtle herbal aroma with nut notes, it is boiled quickly and boiled soft, so that from two tablespoons of cereals you can get a full portion of porridge. Quinoa tastes good with fruits, vegetables, meat and mushrooms, so in cooking it can replace almost any of the usual cereals. At the same time, it contains much more protein than cereals traditionally used in Russian cuisine, as well as a variety of B vitamins, valuable micro and macro elements, a significant amount of fiber. From rice quinoa you can cook soups, main dishes, breakfast cereals, you can also add it to salads, serve it as a side dish. However, before embarking on culinary creativity, it is necessary to learn how to cook quinoa correctly, since this process has several nuances, without knowing which the chef will have nothing good to do.
Cooking Features
Quinoa cooking technology may have minor differences depending on what it is boiled for, what kind of cereal is used. White rice quinoa cooks a little faster than red, and for it take a little less liquid. Sometimes the cereal is poured with water, brought to a boil and boiled. Other recipes suggest its addition to an already boiling liquid. Sometimes quinoa is required to fry, and then pour broth and cook. Quinoa is fried to emphasize its nutty flavor. To obtain the expected result, it is important to follow the instructions accompanying a particular recipe. However, knowledge of the key points is necessary in any case.
- Before cooking, quinoa should be soaked in cool water for at least 2 hours, but better for a longer time. If you soak the cereal overnight, put it in the refrigerator, this will be the right decision. Quinoa is not soaked to make it boil better. The task is much more serious. The fact is that rice quinoa contains not very useful substances, which give it bitterness. If you skip the soaking step or shorten it, the rice quinoa dish will not taste good. But this is not so bad. The main thing is that without soaking in the croup there will remain toxic substances that will almost certainly cause digestive upset in the eaters.
- After soaking the quinoa is washed, dried, then prepared according to the recommendations in the recipe.
- The quinoa cooking pot must be taken ample, as during cooking it increases in volume by about 4 times (sometimes more).
- Cooking time quinoa is measured after boiling the liquid in which the cereal is immersed. For white quinoa, it is 15 minutes. Red Quinoa is boiled for 2-3 minutes longer. In a multi-cooker, quinoa is boiled in the “Pilaf”, “Cereals”, “Buckwheat” mode or similar for 20-30 minutes.
Important! When cooking quinoa for a second or side dish, the ratio of cereal to liquid should be 1: 2, if you focus on the volume of products. In other words, for 1 glass of quinoa (approximately 200-210 g of cereals), 0.5 l of water or broth will be required. Milk is added as much if they want to make quinoa with a sweet milk porridge. If a dish is cooked in a slow cooker for more than 30 minutes, the ratio of grains and liquids is sometimes advisable to change to 1: 2, 5, since the rice quinoa steams more and increases moisture and increases the cooking time. When cooking red quinoa you can take 5-10% more liquid than white, since it boils a little longer, but this is not necessary.
Quinoa can be cooked in a variety of dishes. Having mastered the general principles of cooking quinoa and having studied several basic recipes, an experienced hostess will be able to invent dozens of options for dishes from this healthy cereal.
How to Cook Milk Porridge from Quinoa
Composition:
- quinoa - 0, 2 kg;
- water - 0, 25 l (not counting the consumption for soaking);
- milk - 0, 25 l;
- salt - a pinch;
- sugar - to taste;
- butter - 40 g.
Method of preparation:
- Rinse the quinoa well under running water by placing the grits in a sieve. Put the rice quinoa in a bowl, pour clean water at room temperature. Leave for 2-3 hours.
- Drain, quinoa rinse again.
- In a frying pan, melt butter, put quinoa in it and fry the cereal for 2-3 minutes, until the nutty notes emanating from it become more pronounced.
- Boil water, mix with milk.
- Put the quinoa in the pan, add sugar and salt to it, pour it with milk.
- Over low heat bring the contents of the pan to a boil, stir and cook for 15 minutes. During this time, the porridge needs a couple of times to mix, so that it does not burn.
Quinoa cooked in this way will be an excellent breakfast option.
How to cook quinoa for garnish
Composition:
- quinoa - 0, 2 kg;
- water or broth - 0, 5 l;
- salt, spices - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Rinse the quinoa, soak for 2-3 hours in cool water. Rinse again.
- Boil water, add salt, add seasoning, stir.
- Put quinoa in a pot of boiling water, stir.
- When the liquid in the pot begins to boil, measure out the time. Cook white cereal grains for 15 minutes, red for 16-17 minutes. Make sure that the porridge does not start to burn, if necessary, add a little warm boiled water.
The rice quancée cooked according to this recipe is a versatile side dish that will suit both meat and fish dishes. If you cook it in broth, then choose it, taking into account what kind of food porridge is made of. Quinoa, cooked according to this simple recipe, is also suitable for salads.
How to cook quinoa with vegetables in a slow cooker
Composition:
- quinoa - 100 g;
- water - 0, 25 l;
- carrots - 100 g;
- sweet pepper - 100 g;
- onions - 100 g;
- refined vegetable oil - 40 ml;
- salt, turmeric - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Rinse, soak quinoa for 2-3 hours.
- Scrape carrots, wash and blot with a napkin. Grind grated with large holes.
- Pepper seeds are removed, at the same time removing the stem. Pepper pulp cut into strips or small squares.
- Free the onion from the husk, cut into small cubes.
- Pour oil into the multicooker bowl, put the onion and carrot into it. Start the unit in the program “Hot” or “Baking”.
- After 5 minutes add pepper, fry it with other vegetables for 5 minutes.
- Transfer to quinoa vegetables, cook food in the same mode for another 2 minutes.
- Add salt and turmeric, mix, cover with water.
- Change the mode of operation of the multicooker to “Rice”, “Pilaf” or similar. Set the timer for 20-30 minutes depending on the power of your device.
- After the program has completed its work, mix the contents of the multicooker tank and leave the dish to stand in the heating mode for 10-20 minutes.
By preparing a quinoa according to this recipe, you can serve it not only as a side dish, but also as a main dish. And externally, and to taste it will resemble vegetarian pilaf. If during one of the first stages of cooking together with vegetables fry chicken breast pieces, minced meat or mushrooms cut into plates, the result will impress you even more.
Quinoa Soup
Composition:
- quinoa - 50 g;
- water or broth - 1, 5 l;
- fresh or frozen spinach - 0, 2 kg;
- canned beans - 150 g;
- fresh tomatoes - 0, 4 kg;
- garlic - 1 clove;
- onions - 100 g;
- carrots - 100 g;
- salt, seasonings - to taste;
- vegetable or butter - how much will go.
Method of preparation:
- Prepare the quinoa by soaking it in water for 2 hours and rinsing well.
- Slice the tomatoes crosswise on the side opposite the stem. Dip in boiling water and blanch for 2-3 minutes. Catch the fruits with a skimmer and transfer them to a container with cool water to cool them faster. Take off their skins.
- Cut tomato pulp into small cubes or slices.
- Wash and clean carrots, coarsely rub.
- Free the onions from the peel, cut it into small cubes.
- Finely chop the garlic with a knife.
- Wash the spinach, put it on a towel. Wait until it dries, cut into small pieces. If you use frozen and chopped spinach, it does not need preparation.
- At the bottom of the pan with non-stick coating, pour in the oil, fry the onion and garlic on it for 2-3 minutes. Add carrots to them. Cook for 3 minutes along with the rest of the vegetables.
- Add tomatoes to vegetables. Extinguish the contents of the pan for 5-10 minutes and fill with clean water.
- When the water boils in the pan, pour quinoa into it, stir it.
- After boiling the contents of the pot, add the beans to the soup. Boil it for 15 minutes. 5 minutes before being cooked, add spinach, salt and spices to the soup.
Serving the quinoa vegetable soup to the table is best with tucked sour cream, but without this addition it will be tasty and satisfying.
Quinoa - healthy cereals, which can be used to prepare a variety of dishes. It is only important to know how to cook it properly so that it turns out to be delicious.
