Quinoa Tabouleh

(This article originally appeared in the August 2005 issue of LaBrea Living Magazine.)

Quinoa: A stressful date leads to a super seed discovery

by dale reinert, food editor

I was on a date and I wanted to impress. Leading a busy professional life and maintaining friendship and family connections easily leaves little time for romance – at least for me.

My date was pretty intent on spending time with me. Even grocery shopping sounded great! But in the midst of picking my staples off the shelves, it dawned on me what grocery shopping with a date likely meant. Sweat rolled past my receding hairline, down my very tall forehead, and bubbled together on my brow.

I started to grab stuff off the shelves no longer in an effort to impress but out of feeling the walls closed in around me. I was breathing heavily. I was panting in anxious desperation for clarity and distance.

In theory, I wasn’t opposed to a serious relationship, I just hadn’t thought beyond anything other than dating. I needed to get out of that store and end that date. I needed to think.

As I unpacked the groceries, thinking about how I could have been unaware that my date was so into me, while I was just thinking that our times together had been friendly and casual. I put away the tomato paste, the pastas, the meats, fruits and green vegetables. I reached into the bottom of the last bag and pulled out a box. A box which did not seem familiar. The box was labeled “Quinoa.” I pondered how to best pronounce it. Kee-no-ah, keen-no-ah, quin-oh-ah, quin-o-aye?

Some week later, after having moved the box around my cupboard several dozens time – it always seemed to be in my way – I decided to figure out what it was and how I could use it.
Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is a miracle grain that has sustained the indigenous people of the Andes Mountains for the last 6,000 years at least. They use it as a breakfast cereal, like we might use oatmeal, but they also use it for a wide variety of other dishes. Because it can grow in high elevations (up to 12,000 feet above sea level) and under arid climate conditions, Quinoa is a dietary staple of the Andean peoples.

I have used it in recipes to replace buckwheat, rice, orzo pasta, and barley. Typically, only the white variety is available in the U.S., but there are also red, orange/yellow, and black.
Quinoa is a seed from a broad-leafed, annual herb. It is high in protein, calcium, fiber, Vitamins A, B and E, and rich with Iysine, an amino acid. I prefer it much of the time to grains and pastas because it is unusual to the American eye, has the chewy pop of barley, and mimics the nuttiness of well-prepared rice.

Quinoa Tabouleh

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked, prepared Quinoa
2 cups liquid (see Tips below)
3 large Roma Tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 large English (seedless) or American cucumber (peeled and de-seeded), diced
1 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
1\2 cup chopped fresh mint
1 cup thinly sliced scallions, white and half the green parts
1\3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about one large lemon)
1\2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher or Sea Salt

Procedure
1. Measure one cup of Quinoa and pour into a fine mesh colander. Submerge into a bowl of water. Thoroughly rub between your hands to rinse of the bitterness. Rinse again under running water and then drain.

2. While the Quinoa is draining, dice the tomatoes and cucumber into similar sizes. Remember to remove the “jelly” and seeds of the tomato. Place in a large bowl.

3. Slice the scallions and place in the bowl of cucumbers and tomatoes.

4. Bring 2 cups of liquid to a gentle boil. Add the washed and drained Quinoa. Stir, reduce the heat to a low flame, and place a lid on top. Cook for about 15 minutes. Once all the liquid is absorbed, fluff with a fork.

5. While the Quinoa is cooking, mix the dressing. Slowly whisk the olive oil into a medium-sized bowl containing the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

6. Chop the parsley and mint. Place in the bowl of cucumbers, tomatoes and scallions.

7. Once the Quinoa is done and grains separated by fluffing with a fork, combine with the vegetables and chopped herbs. Then toss with the dressing. Again, adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Tips
A. Liquid: You can use water, but why not take the opportunity to add flavor? Try chicken stock or clear vegetable stock.

B. Cucumbers: The difference between an English cucumber (sold in shrink-wrapped plastic) and the typical American cucumber (sold with a light but shiny wax coating) is the thickness of the skin and the size of the seeds. If you use an American cucumber, cut 1\2 an inch of the ends, slice it lengthwise and use a teaspoon to remove all the seeds. Then peel it before dicing. English cucumbers need to have only a 1\2 inch removed from each before proceding with dicing.