"Q" is for Quinoa

My daughter decided her senior project would be vegetarian cooking. That has been an adventure worthy of its own blog post. However, she told me yesterday that she needed some quinoa to make veggie burgers. Quinoa is apparently the seed of a a species of goosefoot, originally grown in the Andes. Though the end product looks like a grain, it is most closely related to beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds.

I ventured out to the grocery store in the town down the road, which is slightly larger than our little hamlet, thinking they might have some quinoa, since it was a largish chain store. No luck.

On the way back home I stopped at our little local grocery store. Lo and behold, there above the huge bags of regular wheat flour were several kinds of specialty grains in cute little 1-pound cellophane bags, including quinoa. The price was $10.49.

Seriously? You want a burger? I could buy a whole lot of ground beef for $10.49.

My daughter has decided to make a lentil loaf.