For The Love Of Quinoa....

My husband recently had a conversation with someone who was finding it a struggle to go gluten free. He suggested quinoa, and got a wrinkled nose and "Yuck." My husband thought it was funny because he really enjoys quinoa, but we both forget it was a love we had to develop over time. Quinoa has a distinctive flavor that I've heard described as nutty or "healthy." I'll admit that the first few times I tried it, I wasn't its biggest fan. That changed as I learned some great ways to prepare quinoa and how amazing the grain is.

Quinoa is actually a small berry rather than a grain. It is in the psuedocereal family, a grain mimicker. I say all the better because this "grain" is jam packed with amino acids and lysine. When combined with a lower lysine grain like rice, sorghum, or millet, you have a protein that is more complete than animal proteins out there, but easier to digest. We use quinoa in a large variety of ways - hoe cakes, flat bread, sides, vegan burgers (recipe follows), and salads are a few. I generally recommend using this grain in savory dishes as opposed to desserts.

Easy Quinoa
1 cup Quinoa
2 cups Water
1/2 lemon, juice
1/3 tsp salt or to taste
pepper to taste
fresh chopped herbs like chives, oregano, thyme, etc.
garlic powder to taste (optional)

Soak the quinoa in water for 20 minutes, and then use a fine sieve to drain the water and rinse. Add 2 cups of water and salt, and bring the quinoa to a boil. Turn the heat down a bit and cook until the water is absorbed. Use a fork to fluff the quinoa up, much like you would couscous, and add the lemon juice, pepper, and fresh herbs. Serve with salads, main dishes, and more. The lemon helps lighten the flavor. My 2 year old nephew approves, and this was one of the first ways I made quinoa and enjoyed it.


I picked up the Veggie Burgers Every Which Way book during a going out of business sale at a book shop. At first I was slightly disappointed at how many of the yummiest looking burgers were lacto-ovo vegetarian instead of vegan, but then I snapped out of it and realized I could use my newest technique to vegan-ize them!

I have started using yamaimo, or Japanese Mountain Yam, as an egg replacer in several dishes. Yamaimo is a little hard to get a hold of, but if you have an Asian grocery market in your area, you may be in luck. These tubers grow as long as 3 feet, and have a really peculiar trait. Once they are cut open, you can feel SLIME on the surface of the flesh. When a yamaimo is shredded, it has the slimy texture of a raw egg. If you can get past the texture issue, it is a great binder and it is used in Chinese medicine as a healing agent for the stomach and intestines.

Yamaimo with plastic wrap around the exterior so it doesn't
leave a gooey puddle in my fridge

Yamaimo grated - you can still see the grated pieces because I used a normal
sized grater, but there is also a pool of slimy liquid.

If you look closely, you can see a slime bubble on the surface of the
whole piece of yamaimo.

Quinoa Burgers (Adapted from Veggie Burgers Every Which Way)
1 cup quinoa
3/4 cup blanched turnip greens
1/4 cup yamaimo, grated
1/4-1/2 cup finely minced red onion (I love me some onions)
1/2 lemon juiced
3 TB All purpose gluten free flour
1 tsp Hain* baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Soak the quinoa for 20 minutes and then rinse. Add a cup and a half of water to sauce pan and cook the quinoa. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Blanch turnip greens in boiling water for less than 60 seconds and put in an ice bath so they stay a vibrant green (this stops the cooking process). After the greens are cool, squeeze the water out. Put the quinoa, greens, yamaimo, gluten free flour, onion, lemon juice, baking powder, salt, and cayenne pepper in a mixing bowl and combine. Form patties on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 25-30 minutes in the oven.

I boil the turnips and serve along side the burgers with a kohlrabi apple slaw with a macadamia mustard sauce. We brought the burgers to a potluck today and people seemed to like them.

Vegan Mofo Day 15: Quinoa Flatbread

I love complex recipes, but sometimes I'm not in the mood to put any more effort into a meal than absolutely necessary. Bitt posted a link to a recipe for gluten free quinoa bread, which you can view here. I decided to give it a shot and was pleasantly surprised. Sometimes quinoa is overpowering in baked goods, but this really worked for me. It is simple and pairs well with a wide array of foods. Today I had some with some sauerkraut and garlic sauce topped with spinach. The day before I had some with spaghetti squash topped with vegan Alfredo sauce.

On bleach free baking paper, fresh out of the oven

Now, you know I can't just take a recipe as is, so I substituted psyllium with ground chia seed (about 2 Tbs). I've added thin sliced onion, garlic powder, and a little cumin seed to the batter before flattening it on baking paper over a cookie sheet. I kept the cook temperature of 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Quinoa flat-bread with onion and cumin seed

I've heard Quinoa flour is much too expensive, but I have an easy penny saving tip for you. I went to Target and bought an $8 coffee grinder, and I use the coffee grinder to grind my millet, quinoa, and amaranth into flour. I don't use a lot of quinoa flour, but what I do use I buy from the bulk section at a greatly reduced price that the flour you find in the baking section. That $8 coffee grinder has paid for itself many times over.

Quinoa is a fantastic super food with all of the amino acids we need. I'm trying to work a little more into my diet.

Why I Started a Vegan Diet

I mentioned that sometimes I am not in the mood to make complex meals. This happens to everyone for a variety of reasons. Mine happens to be a chronic illness. I struggle with systemic lupus, and some days are a little more difficult than others. I am really blessed with a mild case, and I work very hard to maintain an extremely healthy diet and keep up with whatever exercise I can manage. Most days I feel really normal and take on a little too much. Today I felt like I was drunk all day - it was hard to piece together coherent thoughts, much less verbalize them. My husband has to drive me home on days like that. I'm afraid I'll start playing bumper cars.

When I got my very first lupus flare, it was a very frightening experience. I did as much reading as I could online. Some of it was helpful, some of it frightening, but most of it was a mystery. Doctors didn't really know caused it and had a lot of medications to "treat" the symptoms. I decided that I didn't want to settle for a life of steroids, so I went on a mission to improve my diet and lifestyle. People gave suggestions on what I should try, and I admit I probably tried more than I should have.

My diet was the first thing to change. I discovered my childhood allergies had come back and were manifesting in new ways. I eliminated dairy, eggs, potatoes, soy, corn, gluten, apples, cranberries, blueberries, tomatoes, peppers, and many other foods. I started reading about the evils of BPAs, GMO foods, high fructose corn syrup, additives, and coloring. I realized that what I was using in my house to clean or on my own skin was just as important as what I was eating, and got rid of anything with parabens, sodium lauryl sulfates, or fragrances. It all helped, but it really wasn't enough.

In my reading, it became apparent that a diet void of animal proteins would be a more suitable fit for me, but I thought that would be impossible. I'm highly allergic to soy and believed that vegans absolutely needed soy with every meal. I also was allergic to eggs and milk, so I couldn't ease my way into it. One day, I received a package from my sister in law. It was a book by Ani Phyo. At first I was going to shove it aside, but something made me look closer. As I went through the book there wasn't a single recipe with gluten. Very few even had soy! I started reading more on raw veganism and two days later I switched cold turkey. The detox wasn't fun, but after the first few weeks I had more energy than I'd had in years. It was AWESOME.


Why I Started a Vegan Lifestyle

I tell some people I adopted a vegan diet for health reasons and they get ticked. They feel I'm not in it for the right reasons. I ask those people to reconsider being critical and angry. Realize that someone has opened a door into an area they may not have otherwise explored. Next time someone says they were vegan because of X, try to encourage that person standing in front of you. The longer I was eating vegan, the more I was reading, listening and talking vegan. While I was researching what was wrong with the food I was eating, I was horrified.

Because I didn't start out an ethical vegan, I admit I wasn't living up to the label. I was pretty clueless and I fell of the bandwagon a few times. I let doctors talk me out of it, and there were times when I was horribly ill and willing to try anything to feel better. I'm still very new to this lifestyle, but I love it. I like that I don't have to worry how the clothing I'm buying started out. I like that my food takes up a tiny fraction of the resources compared to factory farmed. I love that I'm starting to really put a lot of effort into buying local and reducing my carbon footprint. It all started because I felt like crap, but now I have a little more to be happy about in this world.

I know it's weird, but being ill increased my appreciation for the resources we are all given. I still don't like labels, but it feels really good to be making some very positive changes.