Tuesday 29 March 2011

Quinoa Challenge

I think Quinoa is great. My friend Marnie came over yesterday and had never heard of it, but I think I won her over with a chicken curry and quinoa. 
Pronounced "Keen-wah", this South American Superfood is a complete protein. It's gluten free, high in magnesium and iron and its tasty and easy to cook.
My challenge for a week was to swap rice and potatoes for Quinoa in my meals, every meal was a success so should probably now ween myself off it, before I can't look at the stuff again!
 Quinoa Curry..
 Chilli con carne and quinoa...
 Spicy shredded chicken and quinoa..
 Chilli, ginger and garlic prawns with quinoa...
And this last pic is my copy cat version of a Marks and Spencer's Salad. I've never had such a good salad from a supermarket and could easily eat it every day of the week so I recreated and it was just as delicious and slightly cheaper I suppose! 
It's full of flavour which may be due to the long list of ingredients. Quinoa, pearl barley, cucumber, red rice, chickpeas, mixed sprouts, sultanas, blueberries, mango and a lemon and basil dressing.


Oh and last year whilst on an Ayurvedic yoga retreat I tried Quinoa porridge, that was good too, this really is a superfood. Super and versatile.