Amaranth/Quinoa

i mean normal quinoa, not whatever the hell quinoa flakes are

it's been processed somehow to be quick-cooking.

made the quinoa salad link above last night, with pressed, fried tofu instead of shrimp. it's great!

yeah i bought some (more expensive than i remember, weird) and the cucumber and stuff is in the fridge. probably tomorrow.

ok i finally made it. i think last time i cooked it wrong (i might have just boiled water and let it soak like couscous but this was like 3 years ago so i don't remember) and it was like little slightly crunchy beads. this was much better. quinoa is a good food. i added some shredded carrot and skipped the huge amount of oil they want you to put in that recipe, it was good.

Yeah, you need to cook it like rice in order for the beads to explode into rings - I'm glad you stuck with it!

quinoa keeps turning out mushy. i cooked it like rice w/vegetable stock & bay leaf, add sauted onion and basil after it cools. tastes ok but the consistency is like cream of wheat. tried using less liquid with same results. how can i get it crunchy?

just up above someone says that 'quinoa flakes' have the consistency of cream of wheat - is that what you bought?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa

well this lady is having none of it:

http://huntgatherlove.com/content/quinoa-your-backyard

i'm not persuaded yet.

guardian article is pretty dumb imo. quinoa farmers getting better prices for quinoa = they can pay for a lot of other things that are more important than quinoa (healthcare, education, etc.)

how much should quinoa be expanding if i'm cooking it right? i tried making sort of a couscous pilaf with quinoa instead, maybe should boiled it from the start instead of putting it in after my vegetables had gotten going, and the quinoa seemed to be kind of scant at the end of the process.

i do see little rings, but it's not very big. i've had much fatter quinoa (cold, tho) from restaurants. it does seem pretty edible in any case, even if i did it wrong.