Martha wrote her personal column in Feb Living about her favorite breakfast dishes. One that caught my eye was breakfast quinoa. Quinoa is a grain that is similar to barley or Israeli couscous. I’ve experimented with it a few times as a side dish, but never would have considered it for breakfast. So, one morning, I decided to try it. The recipe has you cook the quinoa in milk and it says it should take 23 minutes total. You add brown sugar and cinnamon for flavor.
I cooked mine for 30 minutes and it was as hard as pebbles. I had to abort since I had to get going, so I just covered it and turned the stove off. When I got back home an hour or so later, I added more milk and turned it on again for about 15 minutes. Still too hard. I put it in the fridge and got it out the next morning. This time I added a lot more milk – all in all I would say I at least had to double the amount of milk this called for – and cooked it for another half hour. Finally, finally, it was soft enough to eat.
It tasted a lot like steel cut oatmeal, especially with the cinnamon and sugar, which is how I make oatmeal. It was something different, but I would probably rather have oatmeal.
Martha and Me 
I’ve never had the best luck with quinoa. It always tastes bitter, despite rinsing. But I make a great pearl barley apple hot cereal.
That sounds good. I’m trying to expand into other grains, but it’s hard.
I wonder if Martha really succeeded in cooking hers only 23 minutes?
I can’t imagine how! Unless different brands take different amounts of time
Oooh, I’d try this. I am a grains fiend.
Your post inspired me to try this, honestly I completely missed the recipe in the feb issue. I was able to cook the quinoa with the 2 cups of milk the recipe called for but it did take about 45 minutes to reduce the milk and get the right consistency. I thought it was rather tasty in the end and completely worth the effort.
I love Quinoa but is so expensive. I wish the price would come down . I would eat it a lot more often. Martha’s recipes never seem to work out, which means….. we have to taste as we go. If it isn’t right , change it or add more time etc.
I’m glad you liked it. I thought it tasted very similar to oatmeal, but I just couldn’t get used to that flavor with a different texture.
We eat a lot of quinoa because my husband can’t have wheat/barley/rye (he’s got a form of Celiac disease). We’ve found it much more cost effective to buy it from the ‘bulk’ bins at a health food store than in boxes or bags.
I’ve made Quinoa for breakfast for years. I don’t know how you are cooking it, but mine takes only 20 minutes. Make sure you are heating the milk to almost a boil before adding the quinoa. Also make sure your milk is simmering while cooking and that you put a lid on while cooking. But Martha’s recipe says all that.