In my gluten-free quest, I have come across a lot of references to Quinoa and its great nutritional value but had never tasted it or even been up-close to it! So, I thought it was about time I found out more and tried some!

Wikipedia describes Quinoa as edible seeds, originating in the Andean region of South America, where it has been an important food for 6,000 years. Nutritionally, it is very high in protein (12-18%) and for this reason the United Nations has classified it as a supercrop. Unlike wheat or rice, quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids, making it an unusually complete foodstuff. It is a good source of dietary fibre and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is also gluten free and considered easy to digest.

As this was my first time cooking and eating quinoa, I decided to keep things simple, mainly because I wanted to experience the actual taste and texture of the quinoa without smothering it with too many other flavours. The recipe I chose is one I usually make with couscous, but thought it would lend itself well to the quinoa too.

Quinoa with Roasted Root Vegetables

Serves 4

Ingredients

100g Quinoa per person
2 Carrots
2 Parsnips
1 Sweet Potato
4 small or 2 med Beetroot - leave whole and do not peel, otherwise all the other vegetables will turn pink during cooking!
2 onions
4 cloves garlic (whole)
dried herbs of your choice
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper.

Prepare the vegetables - they need to be roughly chopped to similar sizes, so they cook at the same time.
If your beets are fairly big or very hard, they may need a 10-15min head start as they can take longer to cook.
Leaving the garlic and beetroot whole, add all the vegetables to a roasting tray.
Coat the vegetables with olive oil and season with the salt, pepper and herbs.
Cook in high oven (200°C) for around 20-40 min, depending how big you chopped the vegetables.
Two or three times during cooking, turn the veg in the oil and seasoning and check for tenderness.
In the meantime, add the quinoa to a pan with double the amount of just boiled water (2 parts water to 1 part Quinoa).
Bring to the boil, then let simmer for 15-20min.
This is an absorption method, so when all the water is gone, the quinoa should be ready to eat.
Once all the vegetables are tender, remove from the oven.
Remove the beets from the tray, peel off the skin, quarter them and return them to the other vegetables.
Once the quinoa is ready, the roasted vegetables can be folded into the now plump seeds and served.

I really liked the texture of the cooked quinoa, it was not at all starchy like rice or couscous; the seeds were tender but with a slight bite. I also enjoyed the flavour which was nutty and reminded me a lot of lentils. On the whole, it was a lovely dish and I’ll definitely be cooking with quinoa again.

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