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Comment by mikestew | Hacker News Reader

"Quinoa is a low-calorie, gluten-free, high-protein grain that tastes great." (emphasis mine)

I'm a vegetarian, high-mileage distance runner who has every reason to enjoy quinoa. "Tastes great" is not one of the reasons I eat it. I choke it down as best I can because it's good for me.

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Try this recipe for a Quinoa Burrito Bowl. Even my children love it, which is saying something.

http://www.makebetterfood.com/recipes/quinoa-burrito-bowl/

From the recipe alone, I think you have a winner. Thanks!

Really? I find it tastes close-enough to rice that I can substitute it easily in my vegetarian cooking. For example, this recipe for quinoa-stuffed tomatoes I love:

http://cookieandkate.com/2011/stuffed-tomatoes-with-quinoa/

Be sure to rinse it several times, makes a big difference.

Mix 3 c. cooked quinoa with parboiled broccoli, cauliflower, or some other veg in a casserole dish. Combine 1/4 c. pesto, 1/3 c milk or cream, and one egg, mix and pour over the quinoa/veg mixture. Top with chunks of goat cheese. Bake uncovered for 30 min at 350.

A go-to dish for me. Really easy and tasty. Measurements are basically guesses, I usually just eyeball it.

if you typically cook it in water, try stock instead.

This makes a huge difference, and is how I prefer it as well.

Wait, you mean adding salt to your food makes it palatable?! Eureka!

Seriously, if I need to boil something in sodium to make it taste great, that kind of defeats the purpose.

He said stock. Salt is not needed, and there are plenty of decent ways to make a great vegetable stock without it.

That said, it's not clear why you'd regard adding a little salt as bad unless you had a serious medical condition prohibiting it. I get that you'd want to avoid the absurd amounts a lot of prepared foods include, just for taste.

I use unsalted stock exclusively in my cooking, because I like the ability to add salt in later, and if I'm adding other salty ingredients, I don't have to worry about overdoing it.

Hello fellow runner :D

In case you've never heard of it, Scott Kurek relased a book called Eat and Run a year ago, it's packed with very nice vegetarian/vegan recipes and a very nice motivator for any runner.

I'd heard of the book, I guess I issued the part where it had recipes. Book ordered. Thanks for the pointer!

Some olive oil and salt goes a long way as a start. Or just add blueberries.

You may want to try red quinoa. It has a stronger, nutty flavor.

Thanks for the ideas and the recipes. I'll admit that my experience has been off the Whole Foods food bar (and a few other places). It wasn't tasty enough to try at home, so I never bothered. Enough folks here tell me I'm crazy that I'll give it a go at preparing it myself.

For the next episode of "Ask HN: food preparation", how about a way to make tempeh edible? That I have tried at home enough times that I gave up. :-)

I'd say its pretty close to rice in terms of texture and flavor. Just depends how you prepare it.

You might be cooking it wrong. You need to rinse it a bunch to remove its bitter taste.

Quinoa is a nice change of pace (and doesn't taste like crap), if you happen to eat rice or wheat as staples.

I probably wouldn't eat it daily for exactly the same reasons you state.

No shit. Is anyone advocating plain rice or plain quinoa or plain anything?

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