Add it to bowls or salads, or use it in quinoa bread favorite quinoa recipes! For a lot of you, back-to-school season is meal prep season. One of my go-to meal prep tips is having a cooked grain on hand to bulk up salads or add to bowls.
Quinoa is one of my all-time favorites: it’s SUPER healthy, it pairs well with a wide range of flavors, and it cooks in under 30 minutes! Everyone has their own method for how to cook quinoa, but I’ve been using this one for years, and it always comes out perfect. If you want to get a head start on the coming week, cook up a big batch and store it in the fridge for easy lunches and dinners! While I often use quinoa interchangeably with millet, farro, rice, and other grains, it is not actually a grain, but a grain-like seed hailing from South America!
Not only does it have a delicious nutty flavor, but it’s healthy, too. 1 cup quinoa contains over 8 grams of protein, as opposed to 5 grams in brown rice. Plus, it’s a good source of nutrients like manganese, magnesium, and copper. You can find it in a variety of colors, like black, red, white, or a mix of all three, but each variety cooks in the same way.
Lighter varieties have the mildest flavor, so if you’re trying it for the first time, I recommend starting with white before venturing on to red or black. And one final note before you cook: Quinoa is coated in naturally occurring insecticides called saponins. They can give the grain a bitter taste and make it difficult to digest, so make sure to rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer before putting it on the stove. Once you’ve rinsed it, you’re ready to cook! All you need is quinoa and water! If you look at different methods for how to cook quinoa, you’ll find a range of water ratios.
In my experience, the sweet spot for light, fluffy quinoa is right in the middle. 4 cups water for every cup of quinoa. Combine the quinoa and water in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat. Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit, covered, for 10 minutes more.
