Coconut Quinoa

I love coconut rice but since I am trying to avoid too much white rice, I came up with the alternate version with quinoa. I wasn’t very sure if the experiment would succeed, but now that I have tasted it I can vouch for the flavor. It was absolutely delicious and you will not miss the rice, for sure.

Ingredients

¼ cup Quinoa

¾ cup water or coconut milk

2-3 tbsps grated coconut

Salt to taste

For Seasoning

1 tsp Mustard seeds

½ tsp Urad dal

1 red chili

1 tsp oil

Few curry leaves

Method

Wash the quinoa and place in a saucepan along with coconut milk or water. You can also mix part coconut milk with water to make the liquid lighter. Cooking the quinoa in whole coconut milk make its more flavorful and creamy

Add salt to taste

Once the liquid starts boiling, reduce the heat, cover, and allow it to simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.

Fluff the cooked quinoa with a fork to separate the granules and keep aside

Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, red chili, and curry leaves

Once the seeds splutter and the urad turns a slightly darker, add the grated coconut and turn off the heat

Mix well and add to the cooked quinoa

Mix well to incorporate and serve hot

For more quinoa recipes, check out Quinoa Salad with Yellow Squash, Quinoa Pulav, and Quinoa Laddoo. Bon Appètit.

Quinoa Pulav

Quinoa is a comparatively recent entrant into my kitchen and I am still trying to find interesting ways to cook it. Apart from using it as a substitute for white rice, I tried making batter in combination with oats and urad dal. The idlys were a bit sticky, but the dosas turned out okay (lesson learned: I need to keep working on the proportions). One of the successful experiments was this delicious laddoo, which you should try.

I am not sure how popular quinoa is in India, but an uncle of mine mentioned that his friend is cultivating it somewhere near Mysore. One thing I am sure of though, it is a priced commodity at Rs. 600/Kg.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

½ cup – Uncooked quinoa

1.25 cups – Water

¼ cup – Thinly sliced onion

¼ cup – Corn kernels (fresh or frozen)

¼ cup  - Green peas (fresh or frozen)

1-2 pods – Cardamom

1, 1” piece – Cinnamon

1 – Bay leaf

1 small piece – Star anise

1 tsp – Oil

Salt to taste

Method

Rinse the quinoa and place in a saucepan with water and salt.

Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, cover, and allow it to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Check to see if any water remains. If there is, allow it to simmer for a few more minutes.

Once all the water has been absorbed, turn off the heat, fluff the quinoa with a spoon or fork, cover, and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan and add all the spices.

Place on medium heat and sauté for a minute.

Add the sliced onions.

Sauté until the onions become tender and slightly brown.

Add the corn and peas and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until soft.

Add the cooked quinoa and more salt if required.

Mix well, cover, reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting, and leave it for 5-6 minutes.

Serve hot with raita or plain curd, papad, and your favorite pickle.

Quinoa Pulav with Aromatic Spices and DelectableVegetables

Note:

Most quinoa recipes call for using double the amount of water. I have found that using a little extra adds to the texture. Too much water can be harmful too as you’ll end up with a mushy mess. It could be different for different types, so please start with double and experiment your way through larger amounts.

Indulge in a Healthy Sweet Treat!

This sweet treat was born out of a recipe that I saw on a TV show recently. The host of this show makes a variety of dishes using whole grains like foxtail millet, pearl millet, black rice etc. On one of the episodes, she made a laddoo with jaggery and foxtail millet and I was really impressed by the outcome. The first thing that struck me was that the millet resembled another ingredient that I had at home, any guesses? No? Then read on to find out what I used to make these nutritious laddoos.

Ingredients

Quinoa – ½ cup

Jaggery shavings – ¾ cup (or to taste)

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Almond slivers – 2 tbsps

Water – 1-2 tbsps

Optional Ingredients

Powdered ginger

Cashews

Coconut flakes/pieces

Raisins

Method

Toast the quinoa until it turns a shade darker (be aware that it also pops like mustard). Keep aside. In the same pan, add the jaggery and the water and let it melt. Once it starts bubbling slightly, add the quinoa and the raisins and keep stirring until the mixture thickens. After about 3-4 minutes, the mixture will start leaving the sides of the pan and hardening a bit. In this stage, take it off direct heat and place it on a double boiler. The water in the double boiler just needs to be warm, not boiling.

I had to do this because according to the recipe, the mixture could be rolled into balls even after it had cooled down, but mine started becoming very hard and needed some heat to keep it in the right consistency.

This is the slightly hard part; the rolling of the hot mixture. I had to keep patting my palms with cold water in between each rolling. Apart from that, this was one of the easiest sweets I have made!

Once cooled, store in an airtight container and enjoy. Bon Appétit.