Quinoa -- butter or hummus?

[Soose]

Has anyone else tried making a butter or hummus out of soaked (hulled, washed well) or sprouted quinoa ?

Yesterday, after soaking and washing the quinoa really well, I put just a little in the Blendtek to try making a butter. It ground up really smooth and buttery, a lot easier than I thought it would. Not much taste in that batch, just a hint of the quinoa.

We tried a spoonful with a little honey, also tried it with a little garlic and onion powder. My husband ended up taking it just plain yesterday with celery for lunch.

Today, I tried to do a little more and solve this taste dilemma. The quinoa seemed to struggle with bitter today, maybe with starting with onion and garlic and salt, it brought out the bitter taste. (Same batch of quinoa, washed very well. But it did sit in the fridge overnight.)

Gradually adding flavors, I made a hummus. Onion, garlic, sea salt... not good... just a little Bragg's amino acids, some tomato paste of sundried, just a little chili powder... still not getting there... added olive oil as for a hummus and then lemon juice... lemon juice helped acidity... not bad but not delicious... finally added a lot of chili powder which brought it up to acceptable.

Maybe I need to mix the base, quinoa with zucchini or with something else. We do make the zucchini hummus all the time. (Quinoa pasta is usually corn based.) I'd really like a butter recipe, thought of adding sesame seeds but they can be bitter, too. I like honey sunflower seed butter, salty pumpkin seed butter, walnut butter, but I seem to remember my family doesn't so much like those.

Anyway, if anyone else has experimented with this and has a recipe or thoughts to share, I'd appreciate it.

[revdrcyn]

That sounds really good - I'm gonna try it.

I make lots of hummus with sprouted garbanzos or lentils, and I use sprouted quinoa all the time in salads - never made the connection before.

And quinoa is so easy to sprout!

Thanks for the idea!

[Soose]

That sounds really good - I'm gonna try it.
And quinoa is so easy to sprout!


Revdrcyn, how do you keep quinoa rinsed when you're sprouting? What method are you using, please? I hadn't thought, guess I could use the old netting over a jar as for alfalfa technique... not been having lots of luck with sprouting lately so kind of gave it up.

[Soose]

Well, a word of warning. I smoked one of my Blendtec jars trying to make quinoa butter. It's ruined.

I'd soaked the seeds and I guess they were still too wet. (I don't know what was different, the quinoa seeds I'd made butter of successfully twice before were soaked, too, and I did not intentionally dry them.) Somehow, they stuck under or in the mechanism below the blade? And it started smoking.

It's ruined the rubber part in there -- not on the base at all but on the jar. I keep putting water in and whirring it and it always comes out dark brown.

The Blendtec is supposed to have a clutch that doesn't let the motor seize up if gets hung on something or frozen up, you know. But it didn't get hung at all, it didn't seize, it just did something to smoke and cook the gasket in there. I don't know if they'll replace my jar or not. I had given my 2.5 year old blendtec to my sis and bought a new 7year warrantied one. This was the old jar so luckily, I still have my newer jar to use. And I did grind flax in the old jar yesterday, after washing the jar multiple times. I'm hoping it's okay for dry stuff.

Just wanted to warn everyone about the quinoa.