May

12

Quinoa: Nature’s Miracle Food

Posted by Natural Health

May 12, 2008 |

 Quinoa (pronounced either keen-wa or kee-no-ah) is perhaps one of the healthiest, and least appreciated foods you can eat.

Quinoa grains

Almost all of the few who are familiar with quinoa will readily sing the praises of this ‘super grain’, but technically it is not a cereal, as it is the seeds of a bush, rather than a grass like wheat or rice. It can, however, be treated and used in almost identical fashion, making it a very healthy substitute for either.

It is naturally gluten-free, helping to make it easy to digest. It has a set of essential amino acids that is rather unusually well balanced for humans (unlike rice or wheat, which are short on several, including lysine.) Perhaps most importantly, it has an extremely high protein count, coming in between 12%-18%, one of the highest among all commonly eaten plants; and of course it has no shortage of dietary fiber. This makes it absolutely invaluable to vegetarians and vegans, and highly nutritious for everyone else, as well. It is also a good source for phosphorous, magnesium, and iron.

It can be cooked just as you would rice, with one cup of dry grains to two cups of water or stock for about 14-18 minutes, until the germ separates from the seed (this makes it look like they have grown little white ‘tails’.) This goes well in almost any use to which you would put cooked rice. It can also be soaked for 2-4 hours in water, which germinates the seeds and hugely increases its nutritional value, as it activates the amino acids and boosts the vitamin content; this can be added to foods to increase the nutritional value, or used on salads, etc.

 You can easily find a number of delicious recipes for or containing quinoa, such as Quinoa with Peanuts and Sesame Seeds.


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