Friday, 14th of May 2010 at 07:03:28 AM 
Care for a lizard on a stick? It's a protein lollipop!
Oh, but wait. I could do a recipe challenge my own darn self, yes? I could… learn to make new foods! That totally fits, allows me to do what I wanted to do, and yet doesn’t trap the whole five of us in a place where we have to eat lizards on sticks.
Wait. Where are you going?? I don’t really plan to eat lizards, on sticks or otherwise. I promise.
And the truth is that I am a pretty adventuresome eater, already, and consider myself a decent amateur cook. This wasn’t a matter of, like… wanting to go beyond ramen noodles, or anything. I just would like to cook a few foods I’ve not yet tried or mastered.
That would not just be learning, it would be… delicious. I hoped.
I spent a few days trying to figure out what I wanted to try. And then I went to Kira, because Kira is wise in the ways of deliciousness.
“Can you believe I have never, ever eaten quinoa?” I asked her.
Kira may have gasped. “Quinoa is delicious!” she said. “And it’s so, so good for you! Get the red kind. The red is the best.”
This made me feel a little nervous, because I had no idea it came in different colors. But it does! And Kira said to get the red, so I did. My regular grocery store didn’t have it, but I found it at the other store, and I brought it home feeling hopeful.
Not my personal quinoa. I ate mine. But you get the idea.
It turns out that the quinoa is terribly difficult to cook; I dumped it into the crock as directed with the rest of the chili. it sort of felt like cheating, but hey, I was following the recipe!
I put the chili on the table that night and both children peered into their bowls and said, “What is it?”
“It’s veggie chili with quinoa,” I said. Now, my daughter likes my existing veggie chili recipe just fine, but my son isn’t crazy about it. So I figured it was time to leverage this experiment. “Quinoa is a lot like rice, which you love“—here I made meaningful eyebrows at my son—”so I think you’ll like this a lot more than our regular veggie chili.”
He remained unconvinced. He peered into his bowl again.
My daughter took a bite. “This is delicious!” she said. She looked at her bowl. “It kind of looks like toenails, though. Tiny toenails.”
“Yes,” I said, “I made you TOENAILS for dinner.”
“Leprechaun toenails?” asked my husband. “It’s not St. Patrick’s Day….”
Somewhere in the ensuing giggling, my son took a bite. And declared it “okay.”
We grownups thought it was great. Chewy and nutty and filling, and it didn’t leave me with that carby-coma rice can sometimes induce. I am keen on quinoa! (Yes, I said it.)
I feel very silly for never having had it before. But now I know.
I *love* quinoa!! It’s also great as a substitute for the rice in Spanish rice – quinoa seems to work very well with tomatoes (throw in some feta too, trust me! – and also with some parmesan cheese as a mock risotto.
I know, right? The first time I had quinoa I was in New York, killing a day sightseeing by my ownself while the fried I was visiting was at work. I was in this super-trendy little sandwichy place and ordered a salad that had quinoa in it. It came out and it totally looks like toenails, or…, um, like something that ought to be part of the reproductive process, if you catch my drift. The appearance was a little off-putting, but I totally didn’t want to be all Country Mouse goes to the Big City and Chickens Out of Eating The Weird-Looking Thing, so I tried it and it was so TASTY.
And I was visiting a friend, not a fried.
Ha! I didn’t know how to say the word for a long time, in fact I think I just found out a week or so ago. There was some on my salad a month-ish ago at a restaurant, and it was tasty. I bought some, but haven’t yet decided what to do with it! I think I may very well have to make this recipe
Conan!!! My favorite scene in that entire movie has to be him walking along boinging the tail on his lizard on a stick
I might have to try quinoa at some point. Or I might just have some someone else has made since I don’t so much cook as heat.
Mmmm…toenails. (That would get most any boy to try a bite, actually.)
Ew. Lizards on sticks. Euwwww!
But quinoa = WIN. I love it, and actually just tried the red kind recently. I usually have it with the stir fries I make for my weekday lunches, and I love that it doesn’t give that carby coma. I believe that is because it is a complete protein!
We have also been wanting to try quinoa, but our amazingly worthless local stores do not carry it, we only have 3 so it’s not like I had a large variety of searching to do. I may have to find a place to order on line.
The sell the kind I bought in bulk at Amazon, but I’d find a way to get some and try it before you commit to a case.
May be time for a road trip the big city!
It’s like rice? Is it like couscous only bigger? I am the country mouse. I have no idea what the heck you’re talking about.
It’s a little like couscous, Mare, but heartier. I don’t know how to describe it, really. You should try it!
Quick question please: Did you precook the quinoa, or just chuck in into the crockpot raw? Also, I have read that you should rinse or soak it first to remove the bitterness. Did you take any special steps like these?
Thanks, that chili sounds yummy! I bet it would also be good with some roasted hatch peppers and maybe a handful of cilantro tossed in at the end!
Julie—I just chucked it into the crock. The brand I bought claimed to be pre-rinsed so I just threw it in there. It wasn’t at all bitter. (Keep in mind, though, that the chili recipe I was using was fairly sweet, and I also added sweet potatoes so it was even sweeter.)
This is my family’s favorite quinoa recipe. It kills!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quinoa-and-Black-Beans/Detail.aspx
Quinoa provides all six essential amino acids, I do believe. It tastes even nuttier if you toast it before you cook it.
I like to make a salad of it with toasted almonds, feta, cucumber, kalamata olives, shredded carrot and whatever else with a lemony dressing.
I make it all the time – easiest thing in the world! I buy the pre-rinsed stuff because a)I’m lazy and b)that’s what my grocery store carries, but even if you buy the other stuff you just run it under the faucet with a mesh strainer for a minute or so. I usually cook it on the stovetop like rice: 2-to-1 ratio of liquid to quinoa (I usually use broth instead of water because I like the flavor), boil for 10-15 minutes, you’re done.
Oops, I should say “simmer 10-15 minutes.” It doesn’t really need to boil.
I hadn’t tried quinoa either until about a month ago. The first time I did my boyfriend and I both HATED the recipe we tried it in. It tasted like we were eating grass from the front lawn. After taking a bite, we simultaneously looked at one another and immediately concluded we’d be finishing our meal at our favorite local restaraunt. It was that awful. But…we still had half a freakin’ box of the stuff and didn’t want to just pitch it. We spent a week looking up different recipes to try it in, and what do you know? The first recipe was just a fluke. We’ve had it a couple more times since then and it’s tasted great.
The lizards made me think you’ve been watching too much Andrew Zimmern.
I got Quinoa from my local nature/granola store about 18 years ago (they had only the white kind then). I tried it in one recipe and thought it was nasty, but I guess it’s time to give it another try! Especially after reading Heidi’s comment, mmmm.
Quick question. All the recipes I’ve found for crockpots say cook for a couple of hours. What about putting it in, leaving for the day and eating it at night? Will it hurt it to stay in longer than the recipe says? Sooooo confused.
I left mine in for about 4 hours, Becky… I don’t know what would happen if you left it for the day. Might get too mushy.
I make it sweet/savory with chicken broth, onions, almonds, and cranberries. My college age child is quite suspicious of it!
Thanks Mir!!
Quinoa has now gone mainstream — I bought a ginormous bag of it at Costco. (Doesn’t mean I’ve actually, you know, cooked it or anything.)