How to cook quinoa grits
The pioneers of quinoa were Indian tribes. She saved them more than once during the years of crop failure. In European countries, this cereal was recognized recently. Therefore, not enough is known about its beneficial properties either.
Useful properties of quinoa grits
Externally, quinoa is similar to buckwheat, but has a lighter shade. The taste of cooked cereals is similar to rice porridge with a bitter aftertaste. If you rinse the cereal before cooking, then the bitterness can be removed. But at the same time, the finished dish will lose some of its useful qualities.
Quinoa is one of the few grains that are of great benefit to the body:
- It contains much more useful ingredients than other cereals.
- The proportion of vegetable protein and amino acids is very high.
- With their low calorie content, quinoa dishes are energizing.
- Quinoa is gluten free, so it doesn't cause allergic reactions.
- High in fiber.
All these properties make it possible to include cereals among the foods that are recommended for dietary nutrition. Moreover, dietary experts recommend including quinoa in the diet not only for adults, but also for children.
How to cook quinoa grits
A prerequisite for a tasty and healthy quinoa dish is pre-soaking in water for several hours. It is most convenient to fill the cereal with water in the evening, then in the morning it can be washed and boiled. This simple procedure will remove excess saponins from the cereal and give it a softer flavor.
For cooking, take one part of cereal and two parts of water and put on fire. When the water boils, the intensity of heating is reduced to a minimum and the cereal is boiled for a quarter of an hour. The quinoa prepared with this recipe can be used for other dishes. If you replace water with milk and add a little sugar, you get delicious and satisfying porridge... And if you take meat broth instead of water, then the finished quinoa can be used as a side dish for the main dish.
When boiling, the appearance of the cereal changes greatly: the center of the grain becomes transparent, the rest is formed in the form of a crown. The consistency of the grains becomes similar to couscous, they acquire the same tenderness and softness. When cooked properly, the cereal becomes caviar-like, as the quinoa grains burst during the meal as well as the eggs. When boiling, quinoa quadruples in size, so you need to choose the right cooking pot to keep this change in mind.
Quinoa Recipes
Conventionally boiled quinoa can be used to make a delicious warm salad... To do this, heat a large spoonful of olive oil in a frying pan and fry 600 g of sliced mushrooms, 1 finely chopped medium onion and 4 chopped garlic cloves in it. You need to fry until the mushrooms acquire a light brown hue. After that, add half a kilo of boiled quinoa to the contents of the pan and keep it on fire for a couple of minutes. Then the salad is salted, pepper and sprinkled with finely chopped parsley.
For a light meal, make quinoa with shrimp... To do this, the dishes are soaked in advance and washed with a glass of quinoa. One onion and a couple of garlic cloves are finely chopped and fried with olive oil. Then the prepared quinoa is added to them and they are fried together for another couple of minutes. Now you need to pour in half a liter of vegetable broth and cook for about 20 minutes more. Chopped greens are added to the finished cereal. In another frying pan, they heat olive oil and fry 250 g of shrimp in it for three minutes. Before serving, cooked cereals are first placed on a plate, and shrimps are spread on top of it.
