Should i rinse quinoa before cooking

It also makes toasting your quinoa impossible—unless you want to wait hours and hours for your quinoa to dry. The good news is that grain expert and cookbook author , and avid Instagrammer Maria Speck doesn't think rinsing is necessary. Much of the quinoa that is sold in the States is pre-washed before it's packaged brands often slap the term "pre-washed" on the bag itself. But that's a little misleading. The grains are coated with a natural compound called saponins, which can taste soapy or bitter—which is their purpose.

Saponins prevent animals, birds, and other creatures from eating quinoa in the wild. Some people are particularly sensitive to saponins, which is why unrinsed cooked quinoa has a reputation for tasting bitter.

However, most quinoa that is sold in packages has been "pre-rinsed," which means the saponins have been removed and rinsing isn't necessary.

Check the packaging, and save yourself from this annoying kitchen task. Boil-in-bag quinoa, which is now available at many supermarkets, is another convenient option that does not require rinsing. If you buy quinoa from the bulk bin section of your supermarket, you might want to rinse it to be safe, especially if you have found quinoa to have a bitter flavor in the past. If this has not been an issue for you, I would skip this step altogether and cook the quinoa as directed.

Happily, the solution to preventing bitter quinoa is very simple. All you need to do is rinse your uncooked quinoa in cold running water for a minute or so until the water runs clear. Rinsing the quinoa gets rid of the saponin and thus its bitter flavor—great. But rinsing quinoa is also annoying. It also makes toasting your quinoa impossible—unless you want to wait hours and hours for your quinoa to dry.

Quinoa can be eaten raw or uncooked if it is first soaked and sprouted, but some experts advise that quinoa should always be cooked, not consumed as a raw sprout. It is equally nutritious in sprout form, but cooking may be a safer and more versatile way to include it in your diet.

Wet methods are an effective way to remove saponin, that being the rinsing or soaking of the quinoa seeds with water. Dry methods for saponin removal require specialized equipment and often involve abrasive scarification of the outer layer of the seed.

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