Quinoa

[pinenut]

I'm a huge fan of quinoa and don't want to have to give it up if I don't have to. Can I buy quinoa, soak it, then eat it...is it edible live food if I do that? I know I have to rinse the saponins from the quinoa before cooking, but is rinsing and then soaking enough to make them edible live food?

[livingatthetop]

quionona is raw. the guy in my health food store gave it to me to soak and he said it was raw

[JinxieKat]

Quiona sprouts are the best! Just rinse them like mad and soak them overnight. You don't really need to 'sprout' them as they should have little tails just from the soaking. By just soaking you pretty much eliminate the chance of mold. Then just drain them well and store in the fridge. They make a great meal if you mix them up with some berries and a dab of raw honey or agave nectar.. YUM! They also do well savory with marinated mushroom slices and onions... More yum!

Jinx

[pinenut]

Thanks Jinxie...great ideas.

[cattzeye]

I have a question: after soaking/sprouting the quinoa overnight, then draining, approximately how long do they stay good in the refrigerator? I have yet to ever sprout anything (seems too intimidating!), but doing the quinoa sounds easy.

I'd like to give it a go, but want to be sure I don't soak too much to use before it goes bad. Oh, also, does it double in quantity after soaking?

Thanks,

Christine

[JinxieKat]

Quiona is a great place to start sprouting. The longest I've kept it in the fridge is about 4 or 5 days. It is very hard to soak for too long, I've done 24 hours by mistake once and it was still fine. Lots of little tails :) Just drain them well before you dump them in the fridge. I'm not sure if they quite double, but a little does go along way. Your not going to get as much as you would from something like say, Alfalfa, simply because your more just soaking than sprouting.

This is how simple sprouting can be though.. Take a bowl, take a mesh strainer that will nest into the bowl. Put seeds in strainer, fill with bowl with strainer set into it with water to amply cover the seeds. Soak overnight. Next morning drain, rinse, cover with a towel. Go to work, come home, rinse well. Rinse again before bed. Once you see you have little tails stop right there and toss them in the fridge. You have the biggest chance of mold once you start to really grow your tails. So if you just have little tails, really more of a white bump on the seed, you know that it is alive and good to eat. 99% of sprouts will be fine this way. Some, like chickpeas, taste better if sprouted longer. That is more of a personal preference though. I very rarely grow long tails on any of my sprouts. Though I accidently sprouted flax seed this weekend, it was easy too *lol*

I wish I could find the article I used to have on sprouting. Basicly it said the longer the tail the less nutrition in the seed as the sprout uses it's own nutrients to fuel growth. Makes sence since the seed isn't in the ground, isn't getting sunlight, just lots of water. Things that make ya go hmmm....

So don't make sprouting hard! It is easy. I've been doing it for years and the only times I've gotten mold is when I used those goofy glass mason type jars with the plastic strainer type lids and was trying to grow very long tails. No need for that at all! I have found the hemp sprouting bags to be a very inexpensive way to sprout longer tails. More air circulation so again, less chance of mold.

Jinx