Any fun ways to eat quinoa?

[Salathor]

So I don't like quinoa very much. Neither the flavor nor the texture. But I know it's good for me, and I want to eat it more often!

The three ways I eat quinoa currently:
-toasted as a small mixin in my morning granola
-as a portion of a salad
-baked into a really good quinoa-and-potato fake veggie burger

But none of these are really quinoa-forward meals. Do you have any fun and tasty quinoa dishes that actually taste good? I'm especially looking for meals that feel 'exotic' or use spices and kind of feel like "culinary traveling" if you know what I mean.

[Gilberto de Piento]

Look into quinoa bowls. I sometimes make a Mediterranean bowl or a Mexican bowl.

If you don't like quinoa it seems like you could get the same benefits from something else. I know what you mean though, there are foods I don't like but I try to eat them because they seem necessary for health reasons.

[AxelHeyst]

I didn't care for quinoa until mF made his famous quinoa for me. I reproduced it when visiting friends and they loved it. It's my new goto if I want to make something that I know will taste good for other people.

Dice sweet potatoes to about half inch, 3/4 inch maybe. Boil until pretty soft.
Add quinoa.
When quinoa is done, spoon it out into bowls. Add avocadoes and goat cheese (replace goat cheese with something creamy to veganize).
salt and pepper, and
chili sauce of some sort.
Drizzle oil over it for extra calories and taste (or a neutral oil to not mess with the flavor profile).

[Scott 2]

Stupid question - are you rinsing the quinoa well before cooking it?

I add better than bullion to the water, once it is boiling. The end result tastes like ramen. I'm happy with that. Typically I'll add whatever vegs I have, plus eggs and maybe cheese.

[bostonimproper]

Quinoa fried “rice”, quinoa avocado balls, sub for oatmeal (savory or sweet), quinoa arancini

[macg]

I cook quinoa whenever I cook brown rice. I just do half and half. So maybe if you have any go-to rice recipes, you can try that out...

[Salathor]

We eat a lot of brown rice. Maybe I'll try mixing it in more!

@Scott--yes, I think we're rinsing it well enough. As much as I would rice. Does it need to be rinsed a lot more than that?

@Axel--I might try that! It sounds vaguely like the sweet potato quinoa burgers my wife makes, which I like, so it might be worth a short.

@Gilberto, yes, we try making a fair number of bowls. Just looking for ones that are actually good with the quinoa. I like wheat berries and other whole grain bowls (barley, etc).

[Western Red Cedar]

+1 on the Quinoa bowls. DW and I designed something we called Buddha Bowls a few summers ago.

We dice sweet potatoes into cubes and bake them on parchment paper. We dice tofu into cubes and either pan fry it or bake it (after marinading in a homemade teriyaki sauce). We cut up cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, and radishes. The quinoa serves as the base of the bowl and we will eat from the prepared ingredients over the next week. We might add some avocado, diced spinach, fresh tomato, or whatever we have on hand.

This is all topped with a homemade sauce. Thai peanut is my favorite, but DW has made some really good sauces with hemp seeds, yogurt, or cashews. The sauce is what makes it particularly tasty, and brings some nice fat and creaminess to the dish.

This takes quite a bit of prep work up front, but makes for fresh and healthy meals for multiple days.

[Scott 2]

Does it need to be rinsed a lot more than that?

I'm not an expert or particularly discerning. I rinse it until the water runs clear. It can be bitter if not rinsed well.

[Salathor]

That sounds pretty darn good! My wife has got a good thai peanut sauce she makes too, but I don't think we've tried it with the quinoa. I'll give it a shot!

[Salathor]

Well, I've eaten quinoa twice this week! Both times were good:

1) Mixed into brown rice per macg's recommendation (we only did 30% though) and eaten with a madras lentil style dish
2) As a side for a black bean-mango-bell pepper-onion-fried plantain cuban style dish.

Both were pretty nice and it tasted way better than I remembered. I'm wondering now if the last time I tried it plain was years ago, just at the very start of when I tried cleaning up my diet, and it was too "advanced" at the time.

[IlliniDave]

Pressure-cooked and/or fermented. I think indigenous peoples originally always fermented it. High lectin content. Wouldn't call it fun, but at least minimizes potential gut damage for those susceptible. On my never eat list.

[shaz]

I add quinoa to steel cut oats. I think it makes the texture more interesting.

[SouthernAlchemy]

I think most basic quinoa recipes use way too much water, so you might want to play with that to improve texture. A 1.25/1 water/quinoa ratio is pretty good, and I generally do less than that, pushing 1/1. My basic method is - boil water with salt and a little oil, add quinoa, boil about 5 mins, covered, turn off and let stand for about 15-20 minutes, covered. Should come out nice and fluffy with a little crunch. It freezes well cooked this way, too, so can be done in bulk and saved for future use.

Two most popular recipes around my house:

Quinoa (cold) mixed with orange segments (and its juice), dried cherries/cranberries, shredded carrots, pecans, a little olive oil and salt. This is good by itself, with lettuce, with grilled chicken, with avocado etc.

Similar to your burger, I make a quinoa/potato taco/enchilada/chile relleno filling. Basically, sautéed peppers and onions, chili powder, chipotle, garlic, salt, quinoa, cooked potato, shredded cheese, enchilada sauce. Ratio of quinoa/potato not real important so you can go heavy on quinoa, if you want.