enchiladas

Food Focus: Quinoa

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Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), is a nutritional powerhouse with ancient origins. It was originally cultivated by the Incas more than 5,000 years ago; they referred to it as the “mother of all grains.” It contains all nine essential amino acids, making it a great source of protein for vegetarians. Quinoa is also high in magnesium, fiber, calcium, phosphorus, iron, copper, manganese, riboflavin and zinc.

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While quinoa is widely considered a grain, it’s actually the seed of a plant called Chenopodium or Goosefoot, related to chard and spinach. Quinoa is a gluten-free grain and has a similar effect as other whole grains in helping to stabilize blood sugar.

It has a waxy protective coating called saponin which can leave a bitter taste. For best results, rinse quinoa before you cook it or even soak it for a few hours or overnight. When cooked, it has a fluffy, slightly crunchy texture. Try it in soups, salads, as a breakfast porridge or as its own side dish.

For quinoa, and whole grains in general, the majority of digestion occurs in the mouth through chewing and exposure to saliva. For optimal nutrition and assimilation, it is vital to chew your grains well and with awareness. A great meditation is to find a calm place, without distractions, to sit down for your meal. Make it a habit to chew each bite 20 times or more. See how this simple practice can help your digestion and overall focus for the rest of your day.

 

Recipe of the Month: Quinoa Pilaf

  • Prep Time: 3 minutes
  • Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes
  • Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 2 1/4 cups water or stock
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup walnut pieces
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • pinch of salt

Directions:

  1. Rinse quinoa in fine mesh strainer until water runs clear.
  2. Boil the water and add quinoa and salt, cover and reduce heat.
  3. After 15 minutes add cranberries and walnuts to top; do not stir.
  4. Cook 5 minutes more, until all the liquid is absorbed.
  5. Remove from heat, add parsley and fluff with fork, cover and let sit for 3-5 minutes and serve.
© 2010 Integrative Nutrition 5/10

Here are a few of my quinoa recipes for you to try as well:

A Difficult Mistake To Make Again

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Yesterday morning I had my heart set on making this recipe .  I had all the ingredients for the mole sauce and prepared it in the morning so I would only have to worry about making the tamales when I arrived home after work.  Well I spent the rest of the day thinking about the fact that I wasn’t in love with the mole sauce and also how it seemed silly to try to make something when corn isn’t in season and frozen corn for the tamales just didn’t seem like it would be as good. So, I scrapped it which put me in another dilemma- How can I use this sauce?

I decided to make enchiladas and I picked up the fixings for them which was the easy part.  Now to the hard part making this raw mole sauce into a mole enchilada sauce that tasted good.  I started by heating the mole sauce with vegetable broth to thin it out, however this did not improve the taste- it just was like spicy, nutty, chocolate soup.  Then I got the idea to add more chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, ume plum vinegar, tomato sauce and a number of other things I can’t remember until it tasted good.

I made a filling of refried beans, mushrooms and spinach which I then rolled up and placed in a baking dish.  I topped with the mole enchilada sauce and a dusting of nutritional yeast and placed in the oven to bake for 20 minutes uncovered.  Once it came out of the oven I topped with a drizzle of smoky paprika cheeze sauce (based off this recipe) and a little avocado.

Well they look good right? Now the test was to see if they actually tasted as good as they look. The verdict: they were really amazing, however due to all the playing around to make the sauce taste good it is going to be difficult to recreate this dish that turned out amazing by mistake. Oh well, I think I have enough knowledge on how to recreate it and I hope to try it again- but this time I will write everything down so you can try it too!

For dessert we tried one of the sample cookies sent to me from Enjoy Life Foods; they sent the Snickerdoodle, Double Chocolate Brownie and Lively Lemon to test out for them. Last night we tried the Snickerdoodle, overall the Hubz and I thought that they were okay. They were nice and soft but we both felt that they were super sugary tasting and the texture was almost like eating brown sugar (we just aren’t sugar lovers).  I am hoping that the other two flavors are better.