New Foods: Quinoa

New foods don’t only happen to kids. I have a ton of quinoa in my cupboard. Why?

Um, I saw it at Costco.

(did you read that post where I said I was ashamed of myself for being such a corporate-struck foodie? Yesterday I was saying to myself, “FORGET BUYING LOCAL! Just give me a drive-thru supermarket!” It wasn’t one of my better moments after shopping with kids for 2 hours.)

I’d heard about quinoa, so I bought it, thinking, “This is so healthy. I will totally love this.”

Are you laughing yet?

I didn’t like it. It’s so… Crunchy. I like crunchy, yes, but it’s too crunchy. Even when I tried to cook it longer. With more water. And more. And more. It just tastes uncooked to me.

I’ve been ignoring it for weeks now (months?). I felt embarrassed when I was going through my cupboard and saw it was still there. Can’t it take a hint?

I finally decided to give it a go when I saw a recipe for a quinoa cake. I liked it. (plus gluten free!) I really would have never known it was quinoa. Fudgy and moist.

My mom told me that my dad likes it mixed with the regular rice in the rice cooker. I was skeptical but finally gave it a go.

I LOVED quinoa in the rice cooker. I put a ratio of 1 rice cup (if you have a rice cooker, I hope you didn’t throw this away) quinoa and 3 rice cups rice (duh) and filled the water up to “rice” line 4. The quinoa wasn’t overwhelming, and it was fluffy with just the right texture.

So I think I might venture even further and try this parfait.

Do you like quinoa? Send some recipes my way so I can like it too.