Can You Freeze Quinoa – How To Freeze Quinoa

Quinoa is a very nutritional addition to your diet.  It is full of vitamins, minerals and protein while being low in calories.  It is easy to incorporate quinoa into your diet because of its versatility; it goes with everything.  It can be used as a meal itself with the addition of a few simple ingredients or it can be used as a side dish with meat and vegetables.  Using quinoa can help to improve your health without any effort at all.  Also quinoa is a gluten-free grain so celiac suffers can enjoy the taste and health benefits as well.

Quinoa is easy to cook.  If you can cook rice, you can cook quinoa.  Quinoa uses the same 2:1 water to grain ratio as rice.  Bring your water and quinoa to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and put the lid on the pot.  Simmer the quinoa for 15-20 minutes until all of the water has been absorbed.  Take the lid off and fluff the quinoa with a fork.  Quinoa has a mild nutty flavor that works great with a variety of spices and flavors.  I almost always season the quinoa as it is cooking to reflect the flavors of my final dish.

Can You Freeze Quinoa?

I always cook extra quinoa as it can be frozen and I will have some to use on a busy night when I don’t have the time to prepare a healthy meal.

How To Freeze Quinoa

To prevent the quinoa from freezing into big clumps that are harder to thaw, spread the quinoa out on a cookie sheet and allow it to cool to room temperature.

Once it has cooled you can measure the quinoa into portions and put it into Ziploc bags.  Ziploc sandwich bags are perfect as they hold two cups of quinoa per bag.  Once it is bagged, squeeze out all the air and seal the bag.  I put all of the sandwich bags into a larger freezer safe bag and pop it into the deep freeze.

When you are ready to thaw the quinoa you can allow it to defrost at room temperature or you can thaw it in the microwave.  If you choose the microwave method, you will need to dump the quinoa into a microwave safe bowl and add a very small splash of liquid like water or oil.  Microwave your bowl of quinoa for approximately one minute and it will be ready to use.

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