Quinoa. What is it?
It is a superfood that I knew nothing about until I started living gluten free.
Quinoa is one of the world’s healthiest foods, having nutrients high in vitamins and minerals such as riboflavin, calcium, vitamin E, iron, potassium, magnesium, folic acid, and beta carotene. Quinoa is not considered a grain, but is a superior source of non-animal protein thus making it a staple in a vegetarian or vegans diet.
Quinoa is now a staple in my diet and I am discovering more and more ways to cook with it.
When I was at the celiac trade show in Calgary, I met the authors to the book Quinoa the everyday superfood, Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming. It is great cookbook with more than 170 recipes using quinoa. This is not a gluten free cookbook, however, there are recipes that are wheat free and easy to convert to gluten free.
[print_this]Recipe: Gluten-Free Oatmeal Quinoa Raisin Cookies
3 cups rolled oats (I use Only Oats that are non contaminated)
1 ½ cups quinoa flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinn
½ tsp cloves
¼ cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup softened butter
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups raisins (I used a mixture of raisins, dark choc chips, goji berries, sesame seeds, and chia seeds)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Measure the oats, quinoa flour, salt, baking soda, cinn, and cloves into a bowl. In a separate bowl, cream both the sugars and the butter together (I have a lovely kitchen aid mixer that I use to mix my cookie batter).
Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the butter mixture to the oat mixture and blend until a soft dough forms. Stir in the raisins.
The recipe states to roll dough into balls, however, I use an ice cream scoop to get equal sized cookies. Place cookie dough balls on cookie sheet.
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Let cookies cool before removing them off sheet.
Please check out this cookbook for many more quinoa recipes, you can also check there website at www.quinoa365.com
