Cooking with Quinoa
This will be my first quinoa post on the site! I haven't cooked with quinoa much as every time I need a "rice like substitute", I easily trend towards cauliflower or cabbage. The problem was I really wanted to do a roasted cauliflower salad, so I couldn't exactly pair it with cauliflower rice. Therefore, quinoa made the cut!
Of course, eye rolling here, I had to do some research on how to make quinoa stretch further and therefore reduce the calorie count. Its what I do! I enjoy finding out these tips and tricks. And here is what I discovered.
Using traditional cooking method of 2:1 cooking ratio (ie, 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water), boiling water, reducing heat and cooking for 30 minutes, you will produce a nice batch of quinoa for around 200 calories a cup.
I found a method on the internet that recommended using a 4:1 cooking ratio and cooking longer. So I used 1 cup quinoa to 4 cups water, boiled water and simmered for 45-55 minutes. This produced more quinoa (due to more water absorption) and created a more mushy batch, for 150 calories a cup.
End result? Stick to the original method. Sure, you can save calories, but quinoa was mushy and fat and a big sluggish. No thanks. And like karma, this means that I struggled to get a good picture of this recipe as my low calorie quinoa cooking method was punishing me. It still tasted amazing, so try to see past my quinoa karma in the pictures!
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