Quinoa

I've been making quinoa for a few years now, but I've struggled to make it consistently good. Sometimes it would turn out really well, but sometimes it would end up too sticky and wet. And sometimes the quinoa grains just would not unfurl, stubbornly staying hard and crunchy. This summer I finally decided to branch out from the instructions on the Trader Joe's box and search the internet for a reliable recipe. I tried several different methods, and here is the one I like the best. The other great this about this recipe is that soaking and then rinsing the quinoa before cooking somehow gets rid of the coating or residue that Michael sometimes reacts to. So please soak and rinse! :) If you want to add quinoa to a stew or soup, I recommend soaking and rinsing it before cooking it in the liquid of the stew or soup.

Quinoa
serves 4 adults

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Instructions:

Measure the quinoa and pour it into a medium-size bowl. Fill the bowl with water, stir, and let the quinoa soak for 5 minutes. Stir again and then pour the water and quinoa through a sieve to drain the water from the quinoa. Rinse the quinoa under water and transfer to a 2-quart pot.

Add 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt to the pot and stir. Bring the water to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and let the water simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the quinoa from the heat and let it sit in the pot, still covered, for 5 minutes. Then fluff the quinoa and serve.