How to Cook Quinoa

I have never been very trendy.  I've never even been a little trendy.  BUT I love quinoa.  I love how it has more protein per ounce than meat.  I love how it has very little flavor and easily takes on the flavor of whatever you are cooking it with.  I love how just a little bit leaves you feeling full, but not bloated.

Let's do a simple How To for Tasty Tuesday:  How to cook Quinoa.

Honestly... I've always just followed the recipe on the bag.  However, I've done that with rice too, and I know cooking rice has the tendency to cause a lot of people issues.  Some recipes say it should be a 2:1 water to quinoa ratio.  Rachel prefers a 1:1 ratio.  The bag I bought from Target suggested a 3:2 ratio.  So that's what I went with!

First check the bag and see if it is labeled "Pre-rinsed" anywhere.  If not, you'll have to rinse your quinoa!

After I rinse it, I shake it around to try to get a lot of the excess water out.  Then into a frying pan it goes, with the burner on medium-high.  You don't want the pan to be too small because you want to be able to spread the quinoa out so it can toast evenly.  In the beginning, the quinoa is just little wet clumps, however, eventually it will start to dry out, sizzle, crackle, and turn a nice, toasty color.  Once you see that, you can add the amount of water that strikes your fancy (remember our ratios from the top).

Bring the water to a boil (should happen pretty quickly), then lower to a simmer and cover with a lid and leave it alone for about 10-15 minutes.  When you return, the quinoa should have plumped up, become irridescent, and actually have these little weird white squiggly things coming out of them.  If so, hooray!  You've done it!  Fluff your quinoa with a fork and you're good to go!