Quinoa

Chenopodium quinoa

grain

Seeds of a plant of the beet and spinach family, grown for over 5,000 years on the Andean highlands: a pseudocereal, not a grass. 100 g raw provide 14 g of protein, 7 g of fibre and 4.6 mg of iron.

Origin

Andean Altiplano

Season (United States)

all year round · grows in your region

Preparation

Rinse it for about thirty seconds before cooking: its bitter saponin washes off in clear water. Soaking, sprouting or sourdough bring its phytates down — and release the zinc and iron they were holding. Its oxalates leach into water: boiling it and throwing the water out takes a good share with it.

Molecules

Resistant starch RS1 · Betaine · Saponins · Vitamin B1 (thiamine) · Plant iron · Magnesium · Insoluble fibers · Protein · Lysine · Methionine · Tryptophan · Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) · Phosphorus · CholineIn small amounts, not counted Arabinoxylans · Folates (B9)What slows things down Phytates · Oxalates

Did you know?

The Incas called it chisiya mama, “mother of all grains”; the Spanish conquerors scorned it because of the bitterness of its saponin.