# Quinoa



## mattdeere (Jan 12, 2014)

Anyone ever eat this stuff? From what I've read it looks to be a complete protien. What do you think about it? Should or is this something to stockpile? Thanks, Matt


----------



## Dr. Prepper (Dec 20, 2012)

We've been playing around with it for several years here on our farm. It grows pretty good in our soil but we have found that it does not like to be too moist and a sandy well drained soil seems to be best. Here in the mid-west it has to be hand harvested due to the fact that different parts of the plant "come ripe" at different times. My wife and the neighbor girl know a lot more about it than I do and they have discovered that Quinoa needs to be washed carefully and thoroughly to remove the bitter tasting coating on the seeds. Then it must be thoroughly dried (very, very, very dry) before you can store it. Otherwise it wants to germinate and grow in the storage area. A few years ago we had a big pile of it ready for drying and a sudden storm blew in and soaked it. We also had some structural damage to some out buildings so repair was a top priority. The Quinoa sprouted almost overnight. After a few days it began to ferment and I tasted it. Not too bad. It might have made pretty good homebrew but we ended up feeding it to the livestock. They loved it.

It tastes OK. To me it's not great but just OK. We have tried several recipes and some are OK and some suck. My favorite is like plain morning cereal with milk and honey on it. We have made bread, biscuits, and even pizza dough with it.

It's nutritional value is supposed to be up there with oats and it is supposed to be gluten-free. I think it would be a great thing to grow in a SHTF situation but only if you have a very well drained area to grow. The plants get to about 5 ft. tall and they are kind of pretty with red, gold, and green color.

Try it.


----------



## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

It's an easy addition to soups and some salads. I almost always throw a cup or two in soups, especially combined with lentils. It's pretty colorful too, so it can dress up some dishes. It's one that I plan on storing quite a bit of.


----------



## jimb1972 (Nov 12, 2012)

Tried it twice, in one dish it was OK, in another it tasted like dirt. It is not part of my prepping and probably won't be.


----------



## BlackDog (Nov 23, 2013)

I've been eating Quinoa for years and love it. We do stock some of it but the price has increased considerably in the past several months. We bought 25lbs in June for ~$63 and now it is in the $90 range. 
It's apparently very nutritious and stores well.


----------



## Dr. Prepper (Dec 20, 2012)

indie said:


> It's an easy addition to soups and some salads. I almost always throw a cup or two in soups, especially combined with lentils. It's pretty colorful too, so it can dress up some dishes. It's one that I plan on storing quite a bit of.


Do you grow your own? I don't think I've ever seen it in stores but I've never looked for it either.


----------



## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

Nope, just buy it at the store. I find it in the bulk bins at our natural foods market. We have a co-op that comes through and you can get 25# sacks but they're crazy expensive...$147. Then again, quinoa is light so 25# is a whole lot. I like that it cooks quickly - about 15 mins. Costco has a wild rice, brown rice and quinoa blend that tastes delicious.


----------



## Silverback (Jan 20, 2014)

This stuff is a great substitute for rice in a good curry. I am torn on it as I love rice anyway.


----------



## Michael_Js (Dec 4, 2013)

We've been eating it for a couple years now - buy the organic bags at Costco. I cook it like rice, in a rice cooker. We also really like the quinoa pastas. Yes, it's gluten-free, and that's not why we eat it. It has a good amount of protein.

Thanks for the info about growing it as we haven't done that yet  Garden is too small, until we move to some decent land in the PNW!!


----------



## BLG (Jan 5, 2014)

I haven't tried it but I did look into growing it. For buying stores of it it does seem expensive. I'd go with wheat and/or rice myself. Add some beans to rice for a more complete protein.


----------



## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

All this talk about quinoa made me hungry. Good prepper meal:

-1C brown rice
-1/3C white quinoa
-handful each of what I had on hand for freeze dried veggies: onion, bell pepper, spinach and my own dried zucchini
-salt & pepper
-1-2TBSP butter
-garlic powder

Cooked the rice in one pot and the quinoa/veggies in another. Mix together with butter and seasonings. We top it with brewer's yeast. Took pic after kids got to it.  You'd need a lot more if you were feeding actual people and not a handful of small midgets.


----------

