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How to make quinoa
Most quinoa has instructions on the pack which are worth following. But here's a typical approach if you need it. The recipe is enough to serve two people, but you can click the 2x and 3x buttons to serve 4 or 6 people. You can always make more than you need and have leftovers!
4 things to learn about cooking from cooking quinoa!
 1.Food that absorbs water during cooking weighs more than it did when dry. That’s why when you’re making rice, quinoa and other grains, it often doesn’t look like much when you weigh it up. Then later, it looks like much more. When making quinoa, some recipes specify the weight of already cooked quinoa that you need, some specify how much dried quinoa you need. So be prepared to do the maths. Typically, cooked quinoa is about three times the weight of dried. Dried to cooked quinoa = 1:3. 2.Water is the same weight in grams as it is in volume in ml! That’s really useful to know for many recipes. Why? Because the density of water is close to 1 gram per cubic centimeter (g/cm³), and 1 milliliter is equivalent to 1 cubic centimeter. x grams of water = x ml water. So now you can use a measuring jug or scales to measure out water! 3. You’ll want to get the amount of water right to suit the weight of dried quinoa you’re using. The ratio is 4:1 as in 4 parts water to 1 part quinoa. So, based on point 2 above, you’d use 400ml water if using 100g quinoa! (And based on point 1, that 100g of quinoa would end up weighing about 300g once cooked!) Cooking other grains also requires getting the balance of water to grain right. Dried quinoa to water = 1:4. 4. One person would eat about 100-200g of cooked quinoa as part of a meal or salad. It’s useful over time to learn typical portion sizes. For example, most typical steaks are about 220g. Obviously you can pick them to suit, but this is a useful rough rule.Equipment
- scales
- bowl
- saucepan
- sieve
Ingredients
- 130 g dried quinoa
- 530 ml water
Instructions
- Measure (or weigh – see notes) your 530 ml water into your kettle
- Put your kettle on to boil
- Weigh your quinoa into your bowl
- Pour it into your sieve and wash under cold water until the water runs clear (meaning it's washed it well enough). Should take just a few seconds. Put it down to rest over the empty bowl
- Pour your kettle once boiled into the saucepan
- Turn the hob heat to high
- Once the water is bubbling (it's boiling) pour the quinoa into it
- Stir it, cover with a lid, then turn the heat down to low so that the quinoa is simmering in the water. That means heat is still creating bubbles, but not so many that it's boiling
- Set an alarm for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it. You don't want all the water to evaporate, so make sure the heat is low enough. After 20 minutes, and when most of the water has absorbed (but it's not totally dried out!) turn the heat off and let it stand for 5 minutes – set an alarm for 5 minutes
- After 5 minutes you can take the lid off and fluff it all up with a fork. It's cooked and ready to eat. If going in a salad, you might want to transfer it to another bowl so that it can cool down. And the wider the bowl (or plate might work even better) the faster it will cool!
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