Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Quinoa along with all the Quinoa containing recipes presented on this site, with 4 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Quinoa recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Quinoa as a major wild food ingredient.

Quinoa is a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium quinoa) of the Amaranthaceae family that's primarily grown for its edible seeds. Quinoa originated in the Andean region of South America, where it has been an important food for 6,000 years. Its name is the Spanish spelling of the Quechua name. Quinoa is generally undemanding and altitude-hardy, so it can be easily cultivated in the Andes up to about 4,000 meters. Even so, it grows best in well-drained soils and requires a relatively long growing season.

The Incas prized quinoa very highly and referred to it as chisaya mama or 'mother of all grains', and it was the Inca emperor who would traditionally sow the first seeds of the season using 'golden implements'.

Although commonly referred to as a grain it's the seed of a flowering plant and thus a 'pseudograin' in reality. Quoinoa is extremely rich in complete protein, so is excellent for vegetarians. The grains themselves look similar to millet in appearance but are pale brown in colour. The taste is mild, and the texture firm and slightly chewy. It can be cooked like millet and absorbs twice its volume in liquid. When cooked, the grains sweeten and become translucent, ringed with white.