Quinoa: like or dislike?

Welcome to Like or Dislike, where you get to share how you really feel about ingredients from the pantry, ingredients I'm thinking about adding to my pantry, other seasonal foods, and favorite cooking gear. The things you like are sure to find their way to the recipes here on The Perfect Pantry, so do tell.

Are you keen on quinoa? It's everywhere these days: in salads, soups, stir-fries, and stuffings. Some people are eating quinoa for breakfast, like oatmeal. I've seen quinoa pancakes and quinoa brownies. It comes in colors (white, red, black). I even have quinoa recipes on this blog. Yet, for all its versatility, I don't love it. Quinoa absorbs flavors from whatever surrounds it, and, like tofu, has little taste of its own, though people claim it's kind of nutty. Most likely it's the texture I don't like. If you love quinoa, please tell me: what am I missing? What's your favorite way to serve it?

Quinoa: like or dislike?

Last week: Capers. Who liked, and who disliked? Take a look.

Last week: Capers. Who liked, and who disliked? Take a look.

Comments

LIKE, but don't eat as often as many folks do; when i do cook with it, i use the rainbow quinoa--a mixture of the red, white and black. I mix it into meatloaf, burgers, meatballs to ramp up the nutritional stuff and keep the carbs down. As it is with several foods, i don't really care for quinoa alone, in soups or as a salad tho....i suppose it's a texture thing w/me as well....but in loaves/burgs/balls, i like it. Try it that way, see what you think of it ;0) Hope you're healing well ;0)

Prepared correctly it's delicious. I was not a fan till I traveled to Peru and sampled the local quinoa dishes. I was sold.

I like quinoa, but I do not like preparing it. The few time I have made anything, it has been the basic salad with lemon, cranberries, onion and parsley.

We just had quinoa last night with stir-fried garden vegetables. YUM! I'm not supposed to eat rice or potatoes, and this makes a nice alternative. :)

Don't like it much. The mouth feel is off-putting to me.

Quinoa is definitely a like for me, but not a love. But I do have a few quinoa recipes that are really winners. The secret is fixing it with really flavorful other ingredients I think. And I do love that it's high in protein.

It's OK, and I have a new recipe for a main dish salad that I am going to try. I prefer faro. However, I am trying to work more grain and bean dishes into my repertoire.

I eat it because it has a higher protein content than rice, but I prefer rice. I like it best in a "pilaf" with chopped toasted almonds, OJ, dried cranberries, coriander and cumin and olive oil and S+P.

Love: the short cooking time, the nutritional profile (much more than 'just' protein), the versatility of quinoa. And I just found a recipe for Miami Maki, using quinoa like rice.
It took me a while to feel OK about the little tails, but I got over that and look for them as a signal that it's done.
We use it just about every way - just plain or cooked with flavor enhancers; burgers, salads, pancakes... And the arsenic problem with rice indicates that more variety in the foods we choose is, and always was, important.

I really do like it, but we don't eat it regularly because it's so much more expensive than rice and other grains that we like. It cooks up wonderfully in my rice cooker though and this month we really enjoyed it as a cold salad with pesto, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, olives, and crumbled feta.

Like, don't love. I make it sweet, with cranberry, orange or lemon zest, maybe toasted pecans. Or savory, with parmesan, lemon, parsley,toasted pignoli, and herbs it is a good, light alternate to pasta, rice, potatoes.

I like it, but my husband does not, so it rarely gets cooked in my house.

I have quinoa in the cupboard and I'm looking for some good recipes! I have tried it in a salad and enjoyed it.

Like it very much. Use in place of rice or
wheat in salads.

I'm so glad you asked about quinoa. I think it's pretty boring by itself, but with add-ins I like it. I need to explore more options. With others writing how they like it prepared, I'm getting many more ideas. It is so healthy for us, so I need to get busy using it.

I am a fan of quinoa, including the somewhat crunchy texture. I have a good recipe that includes rinsing the dry quinoa for a couple minutes in cold water, then toasting it in a little olive oil, and finally cooking it in vegetable broth. Very flavorful. And it goes great with chickpea masala!