[quote]bobo86 wrote:
I thought it was a seed.[/quote]
http://www.fatfree.com/foodweb/food/quinoa.html
There’s a few links to recipes here too.
If you manage to find Quinoa flakes (WHole foods sell it) you can make your quinoa in the same way you make oats just add water and nuke tastes like an amazing version of oats, love the stuff!!
Keeeeeeen-wha what?
quinoa’s good if you cook it w/stock instead of plain water. chicken, beef, veg, whatever. i usually add extra stock and simmer it 15 minutes. around the 11-12 minute mark i throw in some other vegetables and cover it all with a cup of spinach and cover. the veg cooks and the spinach steams during the next few minutes. franks hot sauce is a good addition. so is about a 1/2 pound of rare beef cut into ribbons.
Interesting - the USDA HealthTech database ( http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm ) shows one cup raw as 24g protein, but only slightly over 8g when cooked. Sounds like the way to go is to down it raw with a water chaser. Yum.
BTW - wild rice starts out about even (raw) but loses even more when cooked…
FWIW - if you can find Amaranth seeds they’re 28g protein per cup, but a whopping 128g of carbs
It doesn’t lose protein if you cook it. It absorbs water as it cooks so it 1 cup of raw quinoa ( or really any other dried grain) becomes a ton bigger.
[quote]AK21 wrote:
It doesn’t lose protein if you cook it. It absorbs water as it cooks so it 1 cup of raw quinoa (or really any other dried grain) becomes a ton bigger. [/quote]
Other than basic math that sounds logical:
one cup rice + one cup water = about 2 cups finished product
- therefore a cooked cup of rice should = ~12g protein, yet the USDA lists it as just over 6. I know when I cook a cup of rice I don’t end up with 4 cups after cooking, especially the brown stuff…
Isn’t it possible that there’s some breakdown of protein by the heat??
johnny, if you down it raw will your body even break it down? or will you have little dots in your poo?
[quote]schultzie wrote:
johnny, if you down it raw will your body even break it down? or will you have little dots in your poo?[/quote]
lol - I never thought about that. I suppose it’s something one would have to try, but it is, after all, water soluble, so one would like to believe that consuming an adequate amount of fluid would suffice… You could always mill it first.
Still - I think I’ll prolly just keep cooking it… my body has a hard enough time with me eating a lot of nuts, no need to add raw grains to the party in my pipes…
One other thing to try - mixing the water and grain and just letting it sit until it absorbs. Not sure how it will work for quinoa, but it certainly works with other dried seeds/beans. If there is protein loss through the heat that would certainly remove it from the equation.
So on further investigation I found a couple things:
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the seeds are naturally covered with saponins (which I think translates to “soapy ester”) and this is what can lead to bad taste. It’s a common practice to wash this stuff off by simply running the grain under water before cooking. I didn’t bother to investigate what a “lethal dose” was, but it’s worth noting that apparently this particular saponin has some toxicity (one would assume on consuming heroic doses)
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the seeds expand 4:1 when cooked, which would serve to explain the raw -vs- cooked protein content as discussed earlier
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for those (like me) that had no clue - it’s apparently pronounced “keen-wa”
Can anyone comment on what a decent cost is? I can get it (shipped) on eBay for $4.80/pound in qnty, and that doesn’t seem too bad.
What about the pasta made from quinoa - has anyone tried it?
[quote]johnny-longtorso wrote:
AK21 wrote:
It doesn’t lose protein if you cook it. It absorbs water as it cooks so it 1 cup of raw quinoa (or really any other dried grain) becomes a ton bigger.
Other than basic math that sounds logical:
one cup rice + one cup water = about 2 cups finished product
- therefore a cooked cup of rice should = ~12g protein, yet the USDA lists it as just over 6. I know when I cook a cup of rice I don’t end up with 4 cups after cooking, especially the brown stuff…
Isn’t it possible that there’s some breakdown of protein by the heat??
[/quote]
A few things here…
Is this true? Without being allowed to absorb the water the volume of the combination should be less than two cups. After absorbtion it may well be substantially more unless they’re tamping it hard.
When I cook a half cup of popcorn I get a full bag and that’s without adding water. The mass is the same but the volume is much greater. There’s nothing inherently contradictory about the decrease in protein density or anything to suggest breakdown.
As far as I’m aware, it takes quite a bit of heat to break proteins down to the point that they’re no longer recognizable as proteins at all. I doubt 100C for 15 minutes is going to do too much of that.
[quote]johnny-longtorso wrote:
seem too bad.
What about the pasta made from quinoa - has anyone tried it?[/quote]
quinoa pasta is okay. i buy one that is made of quinoa & spelt. trader joes has a quinoa/whole wheat bread that i’ve tried and found to be quite good.
quinoa made like tabuli (originally with bulgur) is particularly tasty!
Thanks Schultzie, I’ll check that out always looking for the natural goodies. Now you can check this out.
Salbe seed an ancient grain from South America as well, this was the food of the Aztec warriors and runners. Again it’s the white seed you want, per 12 grams
2.5 g Omega 3’s
4.2 g Fibre
2.6 g Protein
Antioxidants Orac value: 840
And so much more, mix it with anything, it’s tasteless Gluten Free and considered Nature’s most powerful whole food, check it out at sourcesalba.com there is so much more to this grain than I have put down. Major energy booster, I can’t rant enough about it.
$30/pound??? I’ll eat steak… and tenderloin at that…
Quinoa at bulk barn here in canada = $3.99/lb, which is not bad at all.
this Salbe seed has me intruiged