It gets kind of tiring. Every day, there’s another health food on the market that will change your life forever once you start eating it. What’s the use in keeping up with it all? We can’t promise that it’ll change your life, but quinoa is one popular health food item that you should be paying attention to.
So what is Quinoa?
To make a long story very short, it’s a super-powered health grain. It contains protein, every amino acid, iron, magnesium, vitamin E, potassium and fiber. It is also rich in lysine, which helps with healthy tissue growth. It’s like rice, but with a richer and nuttier flavor to it. All natural quinoa seeds have a bitter coating to them that should be soaked and washed off before they are prepared. But, packaged quinoa probably doesn’t have this coating.
A basic quinoa recipe will have you boil it with 1½ cups of water, let it sit for 5 minutes with no heat, and then fluff it with a fork. So, basically, you cook it and eat it the same way that you’d cook and eat rice. You can have it as a side dish or on its own, with whatever seasonings that you can think of. You can also use it as a healthier alternative to rice in whatever recipes call for it. However, that recipe is just the beginning of what you can do with Quinoa, according to Reader’s Digest.
You can make salads like the Crunchy Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad found in Reader’s Digest. You can also use it as a replacement for rice in a Shrimp and Vegetable Fried Rice recipe. But, there are countless uses for it that you may never have thought of! You can make cookies, nutrition bars, pancakes, Quinoa Krispy Treats – there’s so much that you can do with this super food!
My personal favorite is the Enchilada Chicken Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers, found on Ambitious Kitchen. For detailed instructions and ingredients, click the link, but it’s just as easy as making regular stuffed peppers and it is much healthier for you. Just mix up all of the ingredients (including the cooked quinoa) and pop it in the oven for 45 minutes.
There’s always a new super health food out on the market. But, quinoa is one worth looking into. Do some research on quinoa and try out one or two recipes. It’s definitely worth the time and money.
