Recipe: Warm & Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa from 101 Cookbooks

I found this recipe on 101 Cookbooks under the “quinoa” section. I love quinoa because you can use it in a variety of dishes, it easily replaces rice & noodles and it is a full protein. The best thing about finding this recipe is that I could actually make it here in Chile, along with a few modifications.

I made this recipe on Sunday evening and took advantage of using it as a dessert and breakfast yesterday morning! I will put up the original recipe and put my modifications in parenthesis to the side.

Warm & Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa

“... Also, a few notes and tips from the book: low-fat soy milk may replace the low fat milk, blueberries may replace the blackberries, dark honey may replace the agave nectar, and walnuts may replace the pecans.” (Don’t forget to watch the milk carefully when you boil it and then cover it because it has a tendency to rise quickly. I actually left the lid slightly ajar to ening...after it happened the first time.)

• 1 cup organic 1% low fat milk (lecha descremada en Chile)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup organic quinoa*
• 2 cups fresh blackberries, organic preferred (I used frozen berries that I bought in the supermarket)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted**
• 4 teaspoons organic agave nectar, such as Madhava brand (I used Karo pancake syrup, because we happen to have it in our house, but you could also just use honey as mentioned above or throw in a packet of Splenda in the water-milk mixture.)

Combine milk, water and quinoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. (Remember, be careful here with the milk rising!) Turn off heat; let stand covered 5 minutes. (Since I was using frozen berries, I stirred them into the quinoa right when I turned off the heat and was going to let it stand for 5 min.) Stir in blackberries and cinnamon; transfer to four bowls and top with pecans. Drizzle 1 teaspoon agave nectar over each serving.

Serves 4.

*Rinse the quinoa in warm water before using it. This helps to remove the outer coating which tends to be bitter.

**While the quinoa cooks, roast the pecans in a 350F degree toaster oven for 5 to 6 minutes or in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes.