One of the things that I love about quinoa is that it cooks quick.  It has the same ratios and cooking time as a white rice.

2 parts liquids to one part quinoa.

You handle it just like you would rice which makes it easy peasy! It also provides a sense of familiarity to a dish that might be a new cooking adventure.  The quinoa absorbs the liquid and sort of fluffs up.

Because the quinoa absorbs the liquid, you can use different liquids for cooking.  Chicken or veggie stock make great choices and will give the quinoa a hint of flavor that it won’t get from water.  You can split the different and do half stock/water and half wine. Sounds yummy, right?

If I don’t know what I’m going to do with the quinoa, I will usually stick with cooking it in water.  But if I know it’s going to be part of a savory dish then I’ll go ahead and use some stock for cooking.

Liven up quinoa and try using alternative liquids for cooking!