Perfectly Seasoned Quinoa - Wake up your taste buds with this yummy recipe!

Perfect Seasoned Quinoa

Cooked Quinoa

This is a flavorful and healthy gluten-free side dish created by my mom. Use as a great replacement for white rice, pasta or Bulgar... You will want to make this again and again.

Soaking and then sprouting the quinoa heightens it's nutritional value and removes all of the quinoa's bitterness and enzyme inhibitors you can sometimes taste. This also makes the quinoa very easily digested and its vitamins and minerals more absorbable. If you don't want to make time to barely sprout the quinoa, just soak it a little while and then rinse very well. This will remove much of the bitter saponins (soapy-tasting) from the quinoa.  A lot of people don't know about soaking and rinsing quinoa, and then they often dislike the bitterness of it as a result. I like to place the quinoa in a large fine-mesh strainer immersed in a large bowl of water. This makes it very easy to rinse and drain. You can even let it sprout overnight this way.



PERFECT SEASONED QUINOA Recipe:

1 c. barely sprouted quinoa (or regular quinoa, soaked and rinsed if in a hurry)
1 c. purified water

Seasoning Mixture:

1 T Tamari soy sauce (it's gluten-free)
1 T. olive oil or "GREEN OIL" (recipe on this blog)
1 T. UDO'S OIL or "GOLDEN OIL" (recipe on this blog)
Several drops orange essential oil, to taste
1 drop lemon essential oil
BioSalt to taste (recipe on this blog)


Method:


To sprout the quinoa:

First place the quinoa into a large fine-meshed strainer. Fill a large bowl with water and place the strainer inside, so that the quinoa is fully immersed. Soak the quinoa 30 minutes to remove the bitter saponins. The water will become discolored. Rinse the quinoa, then soak again overnight. Rinse and drain. With the drained quinoa still in the strainer, place back over the now empty bowl and cover with a clean dish towel. In about 6 hours it will have sprouted short tails.

To prepare the quinoa:

In a medium sauce pan, pour 1 c. water and bring it to a boil.
Once boiling, add the quinoa.
Reduce heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes.
Fluff with a fork. Cover and let stand 20 minutes.

To season the quinoa:

Mix the Tamari, oils and essential oils together. Drizzle this oil mixture over the warm quinoa and toss together well, adding BioSalt to taste.

Serve.

Sprouted Quinoa

Note: You can use raw sprouted quinoa in many ways: As a base for taboulli and other salads, as a garnish or topping, on omelettes, in fruit smoothies and fresh vegetable juices or green drinks.

Enjoy, 

Leila