Tuesday 1 November 2011

Quinoa, the facts and figures about this ancient grain

Recently I trekked off to the gf expo in Sydney. I have mentioned to my readers this before and I do recall informing my readers I would be writing some product reviews; this was to be done in exchange for some lovely exhibitors displaying my blog cards! Firstly apologies for the delay on this blog post, my health has not been the best of late, even resulting in an 11 day hospital stay! Unfortunately typiintonation the computer is something that greatly aggravates my various injuries and subsequent illnesses. Thankfully I have recruited the assistance of my husband and mum in typing my blog! I had the pleasure of buying what is known as 'The lost Ceral', quinoa and amaranth seeds. As those of us who are coeliacs know, that most grains are banned from our diet, if we follow the diet strictly and correctly! The best thing about quinoa seeds is it's a rediscovered ancient grain, originally from the South of America and was called 'The Gold of the Incas'. It is also filled with an ambudance of healthy minerals, protein,making this grain an essential part of any gf diet, or indeed any diet! There is a variety of types of quinoa based products including; a berry based cereal (of quinona and amaranth seeds), also quinona seeds (which I purchased), there is also a quinoa and amaranth pasta(which cooks in 3 minutes!). Apologies if I have missed any of the great products they have! There website is www.glutengrainfree.com, check it out for yourself or email any queries to info@glutengrainfree.com. I brought the quinoa seeds at the expo, and to be honest I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I cooked the quinoa as per the instructions of the lovely ladies at the expo told me, in a saucepan with chicken stock, instead of water. The flavor was lovely, it had an almost nutty texture to it. I served it with herbed Mexican chicken dish, it was the perfect combination! I'll be putting the recipe up later this week. I urge all coeliacs to buy this amazing grain, checkout the website above, for stockist or how to buy online. But the main reason to buy and eat this grain, is we miss out on so many grains, which are an important part of our dietary needs. So make sure you try this 'Gold of the Incas', please let me know what you think of this amazing grain.