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I now host my blog, How Do You Cook Quinoa? at howdoyoucookquinoa.com

Please stop by and share your favorite quinoa recipes.

David Lynch Cooking Quinoa

Want to know how David Lynch cooks his quinoa? The acclaimed writer/director filmed this to promote his movie Inland Empire. In this video he prepares his quinoa in real time and shares a little story while waiting for the quinoa to cook. Great light and sound effects, of course.





If you want to cook your quinoa along with the video, you will need quinoa, sea salt, fresh broccoli, vegetable bouillon, Braggs liquid aminos, and extra virgin olive oil.

My kitchen is calling me now and demanding I cook something like this tonight.

Thanks to Marika Emerson who brought this David Lynch quinoa video to my attention by posting it on her blog.

Did you know if you aren’t subscribing to How Do You Cook Quinoa? at the new domain, you risk missing out on new posts and quinoa recipes? Not mention the upcoming quinoa contest. Subscribe today and learn tasty new ways to enjoy quinoa along with other exciting (and sometimes exotic) ingredients.

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Mushroom Quinoa Risotto

Are you ready for something new with quinoa?

I am nuts about mushrooms and quinoa, and I also like to experiment with combining quinoa colors, so this recipe was an easy sell for me.

Besides, I didn't have enough of either white or red quinoa to measure a half cup, so a mixture made sense to me. I had a package of aging portobellos that I had rescued from the produce markdown rack, so I seemed destined to cook this dish.

A Nuttier Quinoa

Prepared this way, the quinoa doesn't cook up to look like eggs and germs. Instead, the seeds remain intact much like the results you get from soaking quinoa, though much quicker. 

This recipe is based on the Red & White Quinoa Mushroom Risotta entry in the 2010 November Favourite Food Fight. If you are reading this post in November 2010, and this looks like a recipe you would cook, please visit the voting page and vote to give the author a chance at the Kitchen Aid prize package.

My photos skills continue to improve in baby steps. I got a good close up shot of the quinoa today (see below), but the lighting was yellow. The quinoa looks pretty big there, eh? Would you believe there are 210 "grains" in a 1/4 teaspoon?

Mushroom Quinoa Risotto

I halved the recipe so I started by rinsing about 1/4 cup of red and 1/4 cup of white quinoa.

I heated a cup of water just to boiling and added a beef bouillon cube to dissolve in the water. I also added some cayenne pepper, perhaps 1/8 of a teaspoon.  Everything can use a little cayenne.

Next, I melted a tablespoon of butter in my skillet and sauteed about 1/2 cup of onions and one pressed garlic clove until softened.

I added the quinoa to the saute and things really started to pop.

No, really, the seeds started popping all over the place so I quickly spooned in some of the broth I had made. When that water had been absorbed/evaporated, I stirred in some more broth and kept doing this until I had added all the broth.

When all the broth was gone, I stirred in 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and about 2 1/2 cups of chopped portobello mushrooms. I think I could have added about 4 cups of mushrooms to this amount of quinoa and that would have been fine.

The finished dish was delicious, albeit very chewy with the quinoa prepared this way. I know from prior experience that some of this quinoa will not be digested, I am not sure whether this is a terrible thing or not. :-0 I drank a couple of glasses of water while eating my risotto in case the quinoa soaks up more water on its way through me.

I would love to try this recipe with wine.

Omnivorous Confessions

I admit I took a vegetarian recipe and added beef bouillon instead of vegetable broth. I had the bouillon on hand and I thought it would work well here. (It did.) If I doubled the recipe though, I would still use only one cube.

You can easily prepare this vegetarian by using vegetable broth and vegan by replacing the Parmesan cheese with nutritional yeast.

So, what do you think? Is this a quinoa recipe you would cook?

Did you know if you aren’t subscribing to How Do You Cook Quinoa? at the new domain, you risk missing out on new posts and quinoa recipes? Not mention the upcoming quinoa contest. Subscribe today and learn tasty new ways to enjoy quinoa along with other exciting (and sometimes exotic) ingredients.

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You may also follow @keenonquinoa on Twitter.

Quinoa Salad Contest on 20 Minute Supper Club Website

Are you looking for new quinoa salad ideas? How would you like to feast your eyes on 16 recipes at once? You're bound to find at least one that piques your interest.

Quinoa Salad Contest

Having squeezed out the last of my sour grapes, I finally popped over to the 20 Minute Supper Club website to check out the quinoa salads vying in the November 2010 Favourite Food Fight. Wow, the competition there is incredible.

Once again quinoa's versatility blows my mind. I have linked to the individual recipes below because the contest page will change at the end of the month, but if you are reading this in November 2010 be sure to visit the voting page where you can see all the photos on one page. Take a look at the recipes that interest you and vote for the ones you are most likely to make. 

Mexican Quinoa Salad

Queenie Bean Salad

Quinoa Salad with Tomato, Basil & Parmesan

Quinoa Patties with Mushroom and Goat Cheese

Sensational Quinoa Mediterranean Salad

Autumn Quinoa with Beets and Apricots

Summery Shrimp Quinoa Salad

Red & White Quinoa Mushroom Risotto

Katryna's Quinoa

Warm Quinoa Fela Salad

Mulled Apple Cider Quinoa

Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Quinoa Salad

Curried Vegetable Quinoa

Pecan Quinoa Salad

Autumn Quinoa Salad

Cranberry Mango Quinoa Salad

Did you know if you aren’t subscribing to How Do You Cook Quinoa? at the new domain, you risk missing out on new posts and quinoa recipes? Not mention the upcoming quinoa contest. Subscribe today and learn tasty new ways to enjoy quinoa along with other exciting (and sometimes exotic) ingredients.

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You may also follow @keenonquinoa on Twitter.

Spinach and Cranberry Quinoa Salad

Look at that Spinach and Cranberry Quinoa Salad - isn't it gorgeous? I thought it would win a prize. I really did.

Back in October I saw the 20 Minute Supper Club website requesting submissions for quinoa salad recipes. The recipes would be up through November for site visitors to vote on, and the winner would win a fabulous Kitchen Aid prize package.

So I went in the kitchen and I created this Spinach and Cranberry Quinoa Salad to take to a dinner party. It was delicious. I created the salad two weeks before the contest deadline so I would be able to tweak it if necessary, but I was very satisfied with my first taste test. I brought the salad to a party and it was such a hit they didn't send the leftovers home with me.

The photos came out pretty kickass for me, I must say. I was sure this proved that I was destined to win.

Unfortunately, I didn't read the rules and regulations for the contest ahead of time, and when I went to submit my entry I found I wasn't qualified to enter. I had my suspicions when I saw the word "favourite" and then I came to the "residents of Canada" part.

Wahhh. I am an American and darn it, I wish I had read the rules at first so I wouldn't feel so let down.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest and have had a few weeks to completely kick myself for my mistake, I have decided it is time to share my creation with all of you.

Spinach and Cranberry Quinoa Salad

1 tbsp red quinoa
1 cup white quinoa
2 cups water
1 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup grated carrots
2 green onions, sliced diagonally
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1/2 cup fresh cranberries, halved
3 cups baby spinach 
3 tbsp toasted, salted squash seeds

Dressing

juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 pkts of sugar substitute

Rinse the quinoa. Bring the quinoa to a boil and then simmer for fifteen minutes to absorb all the water.

When water is absorbed, stir in 1 cup frozen corn and place in refrigerator for an hour to cool (or overnight if desired). If you are not a fan of raw onions and garlic you could stir them in with the corn so the warm quinoa can cook them until it cools.

Add carrots, onions, garlic, cranberries and spinach to the cooled quinoa and corn mixture. Whisk together the dressing and drizzle over the salad. Toss to coat evenly. Top with toasted squash seeds.

Easy substitutions

I used fresh cranberries because I had them on hand, and then I ended up adding sugar substitute because the salad was too tart and I was preparing this for my mom who is diabetic. You could use 1/4 cup of dried cranberries instead of fresh cranberries and omit the sweetener because dried cranberries are presweetened. Or you could use any sugar/sweetener you prefer with the fresh cranberries.

This being squash season, I have plenty of seeds each week to toast and add to salads and casseroles. If you don't have any seeds to use, I am sure sliced almonds would work as well.

I hope you are having fun with quinoa and learning new ways to integrate fresh ingredients into your lifestyle. This Spinach and Cranberry Quinoa Salad is a colorful and tasty way to introduce friends and family to quinoa.

Did you know if you aren’t subscribing to How Do You Cook Quinoa? at the new domain, you risk missing out on new posts and quinoa recipes? Not mention the upcoming quinoa contest. Subscribe today and learn tasty new ways to enjoy quinoa along with other exciting (and sometimes exotic) ingredients.

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to How Do You Cook Quinoa? by Email

You may also follow @keenonquinoa on Twitter.

Pink Quinoa Tweet

Another entry in my celebrity quinoa category.

The pop star known as Pink introduced quinoa to many of her 2.4 million twitter followers when she tweeted this week to ask whether it was safe to eat quinoa after storing it in the refrigerator.

Within minutes the activity around the keyword "quinoa" on Twitter became a flurry of fans trying to get up to speed with what quinoa is while others congratulated Pink on her choice and reassured her that quinoa is safe for 3-5 days in the fridge.

I was not familiar with the concern about leftover rice. I was always inclined to freeze leftover rice myself, but I don't use rice at all right now.

I am kinda keen on quinoa, you know?

BTW, @pink also wants you to know that it is not okay to ring her doorbell to ask for an autograph. So don't do it, no matter how tempted you feel. Go home and eat some quinoa and bond with Pink that way. 

I'm eating Ruby Quinoa right now myself - more magenta than pink perhaps. I will have to think of a recipe for pink quinoa.

Did you know if you aren’t subscribing to How Do You Cook Quinoa? at the new domain, you risk missing out on new posts and quinoa recipes? Not mention the upcoming quinoa contest. Subscribe today and learn tasty new ways to enjoy quinoa along with other exciting (and sometimes exotic) ingredients.

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You may also follow @keenonquinoa on Twitter.

Ruby Quinoa

Okay, first things first, credit for this recipe goes to The Olive Press for their Lemon-Infused Ruby Quinoa. I am struggling to take close up photos that get the details of the quinoa. Their photo is much better, so go check it out if you want to see how beautiful Ruby Quinoa looks.

Grating Beets for Ruby Quinoa

While a cup of quinoa was cooking in two cups of water, I grated beets on an old school grater. I have a food processor, but it isn't a very good one and hardly worth the effort to clean. I cut the beets on a glass cutting board so I wouldn't stain my plastic one.

What If I Grate Too Many Beets?

Turns out my 4 beets grated up into more than a cup total. No worries, I threw all the beets in with the quinoa.

I have to admit that at this time, I was skeptical. I tasted the beets and quinoa together with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and it seemed dull and earthy. I went along with the recipe but I wasn't expecting to like the final product.

Lotsa Lemon

After the beets and quinoa had 10 minutes to make their marriage permanent, I cut a slice from the center of a large lemon to use for garnish and then I squeezed all of the juice of the rest of the lemon into the quinoa.

I didn't have any parsley, but I did have 1/4 cup of mint with no planned destination that I recruited for the recipe. I chopped up the mint and stirred it in.

Unfortunately, my zester is the same tool I used to grate the beets. I think I need to buy something smaller and more suited to the task because most of the zest remained on the grater. It's anyone's guess whether there was a teaspoon of zest in the final dish.

I stirred this all together and then took the photos that don't do this dish justice.

Ruby Quinoa Is Much Better Than I Thought It Would Be.

Turns out not only is this dish simply gorgeous in color, but it also tastes pretty darn good. The hot quinoa must cook the grated beets or something - altogether it works well. Good comfort food on a cold and rainy November afternoon.

I will try this again with a little rice vinegar to see if I prefer it with a little more kick, but this Ruby Quinoa recipe has my approval just as it is.

Did you know if you aren’t subscribing to How Do You Cook Quinoa? at the new domain, you risk missing out on new posts and quinoa recipes? Not mention the upcoming quinoa contest. Subscribe today and learn tasty new ways to enjoy quinoa along with other exciting (and sometimes exotic) ingredients.

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You may also follow @keenonquinoa on Twitter.