How To Make Perfect Quinoa

Photo Source: Huffington Post

I'll be honest, the thought of making quinoa once intimidated me. People would say to me "it's so easy" but I didn't believe them. Sometimes it would taste bitter or sometimes it would be mushy. Not appetizing in the least. Let me back up a bit and give you a little info about this ancient grain... Quinoa is a small but mighty grain filled with protein, fibre, iron and is fabulously gluten-free. It is also a source of calcium & magnesium and is considered easy to digest. Knowing how important this superfood was to my daily diet I decided to research "how to cook quinoa" online and found so many different recipes and lots of conflicting advice. Rinse versus no rinse, differences in the ratio of liquid to quinoa, cook time variations, and the list goes on and on. This does not need to be so confusing (I thought to myself) and I headed to Whole Foods, bought a bag of organic quinoa, a carton of organic vegetable broth and got to work in my kitchen. I combined the best advice I had found and came up with the most perfect quinoa ever!! It turned out perfectly fluffy but still has a little bite and incredible flavour (thanks to the broth). So here is my recipe for making the perfect quinoa... I'm sure once you try it this way, quinoa will become a delicious part of your everyday diet too!

My Perfect Quinoa

{Serves 2 people; Prep Time: 1 min; Cook Time: 20 min}

Ingredients
• 1/2 cup of quinoa (I recommend Whole Foods Market brand organic quinoa)

• 3/4 cup of vegetable broth (I recommend Pacific Foods organic vegetable broth)

• Pinch of salt (I recommend Whole Foods Market brand organic sea salt)

Directions
Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh sieve until the water runs clear, about 1 minute. Rinsing is essential because it removes the bitter coating on the quinoa.

Shake sieve to release water from the rinsed quinoa.

Add quinoa to the broth in a medium sized pot and bring to a boil.

Once the pot reaches the boiling point reduce heat to a simmer (between 2 and 3 on the element dial) and cook for 15 minutes with the lid on.

Stir quinoa half way through cooking time.

Take the pot off the heat and gently fluff quinoa with a fork.

Place a paper towel over the top of the pot and put the lid on.

Let the quinoa rest in the pot for 5 minutes.

Fluff quinoa and transfer to a bowl to cool (for use in a cold salad) or serve warm right away.

My Perfect Quinoa with Steamed Broccoli and Chicken Breast