Recipes

Tabbouleh, a lemony Middle Eastern parsley and grain salad, is traditionally made with bulgur wheat. This version, fragrant from a touch of cumin and cinnamon, uses quinoa instead.

1½ cups quinoa
Kosher salt
3 cups water
1½ cups seeded and finely diced tomato
1 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 cup peeled, seeded, and finely diced cucumber
½ cup thinly sliced scallion greens
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil; more to taste
6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; more to taste
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup finely chopped fresh mint

Rinse the quinoa well in a bowl of cool water and drain. Bring the quinoa, ½ teaspoon salt, and water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the water is absorbed and the quinoa translucent and tender, 10 to 15 minutes. (The outer germ rings of the grain will remain chewy and white. Some germ rings may separate from the grains and will look like white squiggles.) Immediately fluff the quinoa with a fork and turn out onto a baking sheet to cool.

When cool, fluff the quinoa again and transfer to a large bowl. Add the tomato, parsley, cucumber, scallion, oil, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt. Toss well. Cover and refrigerate to let the flavors mingle, at least 2 hours or overnight.

Before serving, let sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. Stir in the mint. Taste and add more oil and lemon juice (you'll probably need at least 1 tablespoon of each), and more salt as needed.

—Jennifer Armentrout

Cooking with Quinoa
If you can cook white rice, then you can cook quinoa. The formula (2:1 liquid to grain) and method are pretty much the same. Bring the quinoa and liquid, salted to taste, to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until the water is absorbed. It cooks faster than rice, in about 10 to 15 minutes, making it the fastest-cooking whole grain out there. Just be sure to fluff it with a fork before serving.

It's critical to rinse the quinoa well before cooking it to get rid of its coating of saponin, a bitter natural substance that protects the plant from insects and birds. Most of the saponin will have been removed in processing, but some grains may need a bit more rinsing: if the water appears very cloudy, keep rinsing in fresh water until the cloudiness is almost gone.