[arugula]

I'm having a bean cookathon this morning and I'm going to cook quinoa for the first time.

The pack instructions say 1 part quinoa to 5 parts stock or water (I'm going to use stock going by previous posts in other threads here) and cook for 20 minutes.

Does this sound about right or too long? I ask because I find the cooking times on their other beans such as chick peas and cannelini beans are far too long and I don't want the quinoa to turn to mush or I definitely won't like it.

[ghost61]

I tend to treat it like couscous, bring to boil, turn off heat, cover and leave for about 10 mins. Has a bit of bite then rather than mush.

[Trillium]

I cook mine for about 20 minutes. It would take a lot of cooking to turn it to mush.

[devonbarmygardener]

I have never had quinoa but the brown rice I have takes 50 minutes to get to edible-ness

[arugula]

Ideally I would have tried the hot water then soak method as that's how I cook couscous and bulgar wheat, but I followed instructions and measured the 5:1 ratio for cooking, then when I went to rinse it thoroughly as instructed found the dry grains so small that they went through the mesh of my finest sieve  so the rinsing was challenging to say the least...

There was far too much liquid so, having cooked it 15-20 mins and left it to stand 10, I was left with a load of stock when I decanted the cooked grains out of it.

Cooked, the grains are still much smaller than couscous and do look like mush but have a bite, in fact I thought on tasting them I'm glad I don't have false teeth as these would get in there  thinking back to the way my dad used to complain of raspberry seeds.  I prefer larger sized grains - why I favour bulgar wheat over couscous - so will probably just stick to all my old favourite pulses...

[Trillium]

Quinoa wasn't meant to absorb all the cooking water as rice does. It's just a good ratio to keep it cooking in liquid, then you strain out the excess water. It's not rice so don't try to treat it like rice because you'll always be disappointed.

Sometimes I'll cook my quinoa up to 30 minutes but never longer. I think it depends on the variety. I usually cook the simple white type. Local shops now carry the 'black beluga' which I'll try soon.

sounds like you'll need a finer hand  sieve. Colander holes are far too large so a finer mesh hand sieve is better. I have one that will hold about 8 cups and is perfect for rinsing off the quinoa before cooking. They contain lots of saponins that must be rinsed off before cooking to avoid a bitter taste. After cooking, I use the same strainer.

[arugula]

So, the pack instructions are useless as I suspected! I never use the absorb water method for cooking rice, but then I didn't mention rice either.

A finer sieve? I thought the fine sieve I have was quite fine and if I google fine sieve one of the top suggestions it gives is "fine sieve for quinoa".  It must need something very special.

[snowdrops]

How about lining the sieve with muslin,I have cooked it a long time ago but don't remember having trouble with it. have bought some ready for my detoxing that start's tomorrow,so I'll see if I've conveniently forgotten the faff,mind you it hasn't become a regular on the menu so I maybe wasn't keen on it. SIL makes a nice salady thing with it.

[devonbarmygardener]

I hate cleaning the sieve after cooking rice!!
Not sure I'll bother with quinoa. I do like my giant cous cous though

[Yorkie]

I cook rice in the microwave steamer a bit like this one (but more sturdy and ancient).

Bung the rice in, rinse under the cold tap, put steamer insert into the outer holder, fill until water is just above the rice level, cook for as long as needed - no quicker really, but no rinsing either!

[arugula]

How about lining the sieve with muslin

It's something I considered snowdrops as I have muslin, but I've pretty much come to the conclusion that even though it tastes fine, I'm not so keen on the texture and very small grain size so I'll stick to my exisitng repertoire of beans, pulses and grains.

[Trillium]

No special sieve size needed. I wonder if what you bought was ground up a bit? Quinoa is about the size of couscous so I can't think why yours would pass through a sieve (versus a colander).

The cooked texture is a bit chewy and perhaps not to everyone's taste.