from the desk: Cooking with Quinoa

I learned a little bit about quinoa, aka "the gold of the Incas," in my Anthropology of Food course my last semester at Pitt. We talked a lot about the history of food in South America, so quinoa, which originates from the Andean region, came up in the European wheat vs. Native crop discussion. It seems there was also a bit of a qunioa version of the tortilla discourse (read anything by Pilcher) way back when. Compared to rice and wheat, quinoa is particularly awesome because it is a complete protein, that is, it has all nine essential amino acids in proper proportion. If you can get past the fact that it looks a little bit like there's a bunch of little white worms in your food (sorry to put the image in your head, but that's what it looks like to me), it's a great alternative to rice, your morning oatmeal, or pasta, and can be easily added to things like muffins, salads, and soups. It cooks very quickly, done in about 15 minutes. And it is super good for you. You can find more information here!

Here are a few recipes I'd like to try.