Quinoa

Guide Note

Quinoa is a plant in the family, Amaranthaceae, with edible seeds and leaves. Its family also includes spinach, beets, amaranth, and lamb's quarters.

Fast Facts

1. Originated in South America
2. Seeds have high protein content
3. Seeds can be cooked, ground into flour, or sprouted and used in salads and other recipes

Quinoa has been cultivated in and around the Andes since roughly 4,000 B.C., although it reached the attention of North America in the 1970s, during the health food craze. Marketed as a 'wonder grain,' quinoa is actually a pseudocereal, coming as it does from a dicot plant (a basic group that includes, for instance, oak trees, cabbages, and roses) and not a monocot plant (the basic group that includes grasses such as wheat and rice). A more familiar pseudocereal is buckwheat, whose closest relative in the grocery store is rhubarb. Quinoa is, however, very high in protein and unusually balanced in its amino acids, and it has made a place for itself among organic grocery shoppers, who appreciate its freeness from gluten, wheat, soy, and other abstentions. It is commonly boiled as a hot cereal or used for flour, and has a nutty, earthy flavor. Quinoa must be washed thoroughly before cooking, to remove bitter saponins on its seed coats. Quinoa's leaves are rarely if ever seen in U.S. groceries, but are reportedly very similar to those of amaranth or spinach.