Quinoa summer pilaf: a hot or cold dish?

I suspect you can serve it either way. Typically I prefer quinoa served hot, but you can serve it cold. It is a bit chewier cold than hot.

Here is a similar recipe for quinoa tabbouleh which is served cold, further support for serving your recipe cold or at room temperature.

Oooh, that sounds good too! I love tabouli but have never tried it with quinoa. Yes, this does make serving it cold seem plausible. Thanks!

(Will you die if you don’t rinse the quinoa in muslin first? That is such a nuisance.)

We have it both, first I serve it with the main dish while it is hot, and then I add the left overs to a cucumber salad with feta cheese the next day.

You do need to rinse the quinoa before use, unless you can find a brand that has been pre-washed. Quinoa is coated with a natural substance called saponin that protects the grain by repelling insects and birds. Rinsing the quinoa is important to avoid a raw or bitter taste. You can tell if there is saponin by the production of a soapy looking “suds” when the seeds are swished in water. Some brands, however, will say on the box or bag that they are pre-rinsed.

You won’t die, but your dish won’t taste as good as it should.

Hmm, I never rinse my quinoa because it’s so damn annoying. I invariably pour 10% of them down the sink. But they don’t seem to taste bitter to me. Maybe I got the pre-rinsed kind by accident?

I’ve made a similar salad with short grain gluten free brown rice (Lundberg brand) and serve it cold or room temperature.

One dish that I’ve made a great deal this summer is an aparagus-peas-tomato pasta salad that everyone seems to like.

I always rinse things in a colander to avoid loosing most of them. It works quite well. :)

Quinoa grains fall through the colander holes. A really fine-meshed strainer will work in place of the muslin, which I agree is a PITA. I think your salad would be fine eaten cold; and it is one of the magical dishes where you can add and subtract to your heart’s content.

Amaranth is a similar very tiny grain that does not need to be washed.

I am going to have to give this recipe a try, it sounds wonderful! Can I cook quinoa in my rice cooker?

@SuperMouse: Just boil in a small saucepan. Google for time..it doesn’t take long because the grains are tiny – like fine sand.

Since it’s a ‘pilaf’ it’s probably intended to be served hot. it looks like a really great dish, though.

There is room in the world for an enterprising genius to solve the quinoa-rinsing problem.

Thanks for every comment. Going to go look for my muslin.

@timothykinney: Actually, your quinoa often tastes bitter to me. I just thought that was how the grain was sometimes, bad batch or something…
I’m pretty sure my strainer is in one of those boxes, haha. Good luck finding it if you care to.

@fireinthepriory: It’s “lose” not “loose”, and quinoa would fall out of a colander faster than you could say “bad idea”. It’s way too small, and the holes are too big.

@La_chica_gomela: Well, you like to eat sweet things by the mouthful, so I consider your tastebuds biased.

@fireinthepriory: Feel free to spell how you want. Spelling is just a linguistic convention anyway.

@timothykinney: Or, as they used to say, “Lose lips sink ships.”

[Next day] I made this for supper this evening and served it hot. It was good and went nicely with grilled chicken. Everybody approved and thought we could try a little more of this (garlic), a little less of that (lemon), and experiment with different vegetables another time.

I did rinse with muslin, and it was a pain. Did the Incas really do that?