Monday 4 June 2012

Breakfast Quinoa with Apple Juice & Cinnamon

My first introduction to Quinoa prounced (Kin-wa), was at the Gluten Free Expo in 2011 at the Gluten Grain Free stand www.glutengrainfree.com . I purchased a packet of the ancient grain and have already provided recipes for you, cooking the grain with stock, using in replace of rice. It has a slightly nutty texture.

I'm fortunate enough to have a friend who is a talented chef, one morning he came over for me to cook him breakfast! I was nervous, even though we had been friends for years, I was cooking for a chef! He came with Quinoa bread and Quinoa. He told me that Quinoa can be used as a breakfast cereal, to do this you cook it in apple juice and add a cinnamon stick. Although,the trick he told me, with quinoa is to soak it the night before, I had heard of this but had never actually done it, but this time I tried it and the difference was amazing!

This sounded delicious! A change to the usual rice porridge or gf muesli.  I won't give away too much more as I will tell you in the method but I will say the fresher the producer, the nicer the end result will be. I used a locally made apple juice that is preservative free and the taste was divine, definitely worth that extra effort to get fresh produce.

The quinoa cooking
Breakfast Quinoa with Apple Juice & Cinnamon


Ingredients:
1/2 cup quinoa
Apple juice (enough to cover quinoa with about a thumb nail over, this helps if you are using more or less quinoa)
1 cinnamon stick

Method:
Place the quionoa in a bowl cover with water and leave to soak overnight. In the morning drain and place in a small to medium pan cover with apple juice leaving about a thumb nail of juice over the quinoa and add the cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil and let simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until small little tails begin to form on the quinoa and the apple juice begins to reduce. When the apple juice has reduce significantly taste the quinoa, it shouldn't be crunchy (if it is, it needs a few more minutes). You don't want all the apple juice to reduce into the qunioa, you want to be able to serve some of the juice up with the quinoa. You can leave the cinnamon stick in the bowl for presentation and continued flavour and eat around it.

This is honestly the most nutritious and wholesome breakfast that I have tasted, I would have to say that it is my favourite. You can order quinoa online for the gluten grain free website I provided, most health food shops sell them and even the major shopping centres are selling them, you will find them in the health food aisle.

Don't forget me amazing 1st Birthday Competition filled with fantastic GF prizes still has another week to go, you can find how to enter in the post underneath this one. It's easy you can make a comment (that's worth the most points, like my Facebook page, like the post, follow me on twitter, RT the competition post). Will you win? Remember open only to Australian residents due to Australian law as the prizes are food.