Quinoa Pizza Crust

Even prior to our first trip to Ecuador in 2009 Mary and I learned a little about quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) – “The Miracle Food of the Andes.”  Quinoa grows wild in the Andes mountains of Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia and was an important part of the diet of the natives for thousands of years.  It is used like a grain with flour and granules available in most grocery stores here in Ecuador, but is actually a seed and has many health benefits.

Mary almost always uses a quinoa and rice mixture rather than just plain rice to take advantage of the added nutritional value and we have tried many other unique recipes using quinoa.  But recently Mary downloaded a book written by Alyssa Rimmer called, “The Ultimate Quinoa Starter Guide.”  That book, together with Ms. Rimmer’s website:  http://www.simplyquinoa.com/ has hundreds of creative ways to use quinoa.

Inspired by the recipes she found there, Mary decided to try out some quinoa pizza crust.  The recipe is simple with just soaked quinoa seeds, olive oil, water, salt and baking powder.  We wanted to make two pizzas, so we doubled the recipe.  We mixed it all up in the blender and poured the pancake like batter into two nine inch baking pans.  Just before baking, Mary sprinkled on some Italian seasoning to for a little added kick.

We only have a small countertop oven, so we cooked one crust at a time.

After fifteen minutes we flipped the crust over and ten minutes later it looked like this.

Mary decked her pizza out with pizza sauce, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, cheese, and a little chorizo (sausage).

I decided to make mine more of a salad and threw in broccoli, hot peppers, fewer mushrooms, and more chorizo.

It is very hard to describe the taste of quinoa to those who have never tasted it.  It tastes something like seasoned whole wheat flour with a nutty flavor.  We will let you describe its’ taste in more detail if you wish, but suffice to say here that it was, “Muy Rico!”

Check out Ms. Rimmer’s web site and the recipes there to learn more about enjoying quinoa from here where…

Life is good in Ecuador.