How To Cook Quinoa

How To Cook Quinoa

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is gaining popularity as a healthy, high-protein, gluten-free alternative grain. It is light, delicious, and extremely versatile. Quick and easy to cook as well.

Cooking quinoa is similar to cooking brown rice using the absorption method. One cup of dry quinoa will make 2-3 cups cooked. Don’t worry about making extra though, if you have leftover quinoa it makes a delicious muesli or porridge for the next morning.

Here are the basic cooking instructions for quinoa.

Cooking Quinoa

1. First, measure out the dry quinoa. The proportion of dry quinoa to cooked quinoa is about 1:3, so 1 cup of dried quinoa will cook up to be about 3 cups.
2. Rinse the quinoa well under cold water and drain. It is handy to use a fine mesh sieve for rinsing.
3. Put the rinsed quinoa into a saucepan and add cold water. The quinoa to water ratio is 1:2. In other words, use 2 cups of water for every cup of quinoa. Toss in a dash of salt.
4. Cover and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat down to a simmer and set the lid just ajar to prevent boiling over. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. The quinoa goes a bit transparent when it’s cooked, except for a little spiral sprout.
5. If the quinoa is tender but there is excess water in the bottom of the saucepan, just leave the lid off completely for a few minutes until the water evaporates. When done turn off the heat, put the lid on and let sit for about 5 minutes.
6. Use a fork to fluff up the quinoa and serve.

This post on how to cook quinoa is one of a series teaching basic methods of cooking. Hopefully those less comfortable with cooking can gain confidence to try something more elaborate.

Good luck.

This is the second post in our series of how to cook Quinoa, Cous Cous, Lentils, and Brown Rice.