"Popped" Quinoa!

Yes, the picture actually shows the Quinoa "popped" already.  It doesn't change shape as much as it does color and taste.  I'm always on a quest to find healthy low-cal snacks, so I decided to experiment with Quinoa.  I just wanted to find a different use for it since it's such a healthy powerfood vegetable seed!  I have heard of it being popped before, but not everyone knows you can do that with it.  Quinoa is one of those things that often gets overlooked as a great side dish option to your main meal as rice and potatoes usually win over it. To me it tastes like a cross between pasta and rice.  There are so many culinary uses for it from sweet to savory.  It also comes in many varieties depending on where it was grown. There are enough colors of Quinoa out there to make a rainbow salad with it. The most popular is the pale ivory colored one.  The inca red variety is slightly more healthy since there is more protein and vitamins in it, but the flavor is not as intense. Use the red if it's not the star in your meal and the traditional Quinoa when you want to make a salad out of it.

What you need:

~1/4 Cup uncooked Quinoa, rinsed and dried

Let's get to work:

You don't need any oil to do this.  Heat a pan or sauce pot until very hot.  Add 1 Quinoa seed and watch for it to pop, once it does this, your pan is hot enough and you can now pour the rest in the pan creating a single layer.  Once they start to pop, keep moving the pan around over the heat so it does not burn and turn off the heat once the popping slows.  It should look golden in color like the picture above.  Once cooled, store in an airtight container.  

Here are some ideas to do with your popped Quinoa to sneak this healthy seed into your diet:

~Add to Djion mustard to create a nutty flavor and serve with cheese and bread along with a great bottle of a Santa Ynez Valley Chardonnay

~Sprinkle it on any of your salads in place of traditional seeds

~Add to your yogurt or oatmeal and cereals

~Mix some into a homemade batch of your favorite cookies

~Mix with peanut butter and serve with celery and apple slices for dipping

~Add some to your already cooked Quinoa for crunch

~Add to sandwiches, wraps and soups

~Mix with some honey and spread on toast

~Add a handful to already cooked rice

~Sprinkle some on top of ice cream

~Add some to cottage cheese for a healthy snack

~Add to dips and hummus

~Add to trail mixes

~Cook it the traditional way after popping it as the roasting brings out more of a nutty flavor. 1 Cup seeds to 1 1/4 Cups water.  Simmer for 12 minutes.

~And of course, eat it as is with a sprinkle of extra fine salt, delicious!  If you don't have extra fine salt and have a mortar and pestle, problem solved.  You can grind your own into a powdery salt.

Possibilities are endless...  Enjoy this way to eat your Quinoa!