10:21 AM
cucuadam
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| Gluten-free quinoa with Brussels sprouts, leeks and almonds. |
If you've been hanging with me for awhile here on Gluten-Free Goddess, you already know how much I dig quinoa. It's one of my favorite gluten-free grains. I've grown to love- even crave- quinoa's distinct smoky-nutty flavor. More assertive than rice or oatmeal, the taste of quinoa gives gluten-free baked goods and grain dishes a certain je ne sais quoi that feels nourishing, healthy, and satisfying all at once. In a very understated, happy blue skies kind of way, I mean.
Not in a pious eat-this-it's-good-for-you kind of way.
Though I'm sure there are plenty of quinoa converts that proselytize its admirable qualities in the nutrition arena (and why not? Its protein profile is a vegan's wet dream) I prefer to love my quinoa
on its own unassuming terms. Even though folks have dubbed her Queen of Grains and Mother of all Vegan Goodness in the Bunny Scampering Universe, I love her just because. Without projection. Without expectation. Or assumption.I meet quinoa where she stands. I accept her for who she is. In all her cute as a button faux grain glory. After all, her botanical name is Goosefoot. Not a very glamorous moniker. Imagine being saddled with that one.
Hey, you! Goosefoot. That's right. I'm talking to you.
Sweet Mother Mary. Can you imagine? No wonder she chose to change her name. Quinoa is so much sexier.
So Quinoa, honey. What are you doing tonight? Wanna come over? I've got some Buble
.You can even stay for breakfast.
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. You know, some evil, jealous stepmother or warty witch in the spooky woods would capture a flaxen haired and beautiful Princess down on her luck and pining for true love. The lovely but modest and misunderstood maiden would then be forced to find needles in haystacks or pluck wool off surly sheep or sort millet seeds. 
. The jeans you have to lay down to zip, doing your best imitation of 
, sucking in your breath and praying to the zipper gods. Your skinny jeans. You know what I'm talking about. You have two sets of jeans, right? Winter. And summer. 
- er, I mean, quinoa. Studded with nutty, buttery chick peas and crunchy toasted pecans and succulent jewels of ripe, juicy pears. And did I mention, in a bowl licking maple vinaigrette? In fact, this is a salad even salad haters would eat. You know, those stalwart gotta have my meat and potatoes aficionados who eschew anything leafy. Who snicker at fiber. And mock carrot sticks. The sort of individual who gets misty eyed for melted butter and bacon martinis. To said individuals, salad could never be anything but rabbit chow.
is much more hip than canned re-fried beans.
, foraging for nuts and berries on a desert highway in my fashionably shredded mud spattered get-up complete with goggles and chain link bracelets, wishing I had the taut burnished thighs of 
instead of my own wobbly, pale set of limbs.
recipe I tossed together featuring roasted butternut squash, cranberries and pecans. Serve this as a colorful side dish or stuff a vegetable. It would be fab and hip served in scooped out roasted vegetables such as big bell peppers or tomatoes. Red quinoa has a milder taste than the standard quinoa. So if you think you don't like quinoa, try the Inca red. I suspect you'll convert to quinoa love.
's romantic liaisons post 
. It's a serpentine endeavor, this whole reading between the lines thing, deciphering what is true and what is only 
