How to Make the Best Quinoa ( 7 recipes to make with quinoa)

How to make the best quinoa plus 7 recipes to get you started into loving quinoa as a perfect replacement for rice.

Oh quinoa, my love. Today I’m going to teach you all how to make the best quinoa right at home.

What is quinoa?

Quinoa is a protein-packed grain that is blissfully gluten-free! It’s versatile like rice but has many more health properties in this nutrient-dense grain.

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Quinoa seems to be one of the lost and forgotten grains out there – until recent years. We are going to teach you how to properly cook it and how to get the best fluffy quinoa results.

How to make fluffy and tasty quinoa:

Rinse your quinoa! This allows to rinse any bitterness off the grain.
Cook with a broth. Cooking with water is an option, but if you are making a dish that isn’t sweet like our Cranberry Pecan Brown Sugar Quinoa, then using vegetable, chicken or beef broth are great options to liven the flavor.
Keep an eye on your pot. Every couple minutes with a fork, stir and fluff the quinoa so it doesn’t begin to stick together (think rice, but with more frequent stirring).

What are your biggest troubles with cooking quinoa? At first when I got my hands on this grain I found myself not liking the bitterness when eaten plain. What about you?

Give it another try. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

For our family, our biggest trouble is forgetting that quinoa is versatile! You can make quinoa in several types of dishes.

Savory
Sweet
Spicy
Rich

In some ways, I’d say quinoa is even more versatile than rice.

Need some inspiration on what types of dishes you can make with quinoa? Here we got you covered.

Vegetable Fried Quinoa
Cilantro Lime Quinoa
Cranberry Pecan Brown Sugar Quinoa (our personal favorite)
Vegetarian Quinoa Mexican Dinner
Spinach Mushroom Egg Cups
Buffalo Mac n’ Cheese

Just a little taste to get you started. Now that you know what quinoa is and how to make it right.

Check out our Vegetarian Quinoa Mexican Dinner video.

This is one of the examples where I didn’t rinse the quinoa off. I found when it’s being put in strong flavors like Mexican cuisine it’s not as important. If you’d like to take that extra step, by all means go for it. I, on the other hand, embrace one less step.

One more versatile dish – try making Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos!

What are some of your other favorite dishes with quinoa? Any family favorites that you’ve swapped in some quinoa? Share away!