Leaning Vegetarian

Posts Tagged ‘protein’

Quinoa is a harvested from a plant originating in the Andes, revered by the Incan culture. Although we use it as a grain, the plant is actually related to beets and chard. The most common color found in grocery stores is ivory, but the colors vary from ivory to red to a black quinoa developed in the US.

How do you pronounce that?

I’ve most commonly heard it KEEN-wa, although ki-NWA is out there too.

What’s in it?

It’s high in protein, and contains the complete spectrum of essential amino acids. A one-cup serving has a 15% of the daily value for iron, as well as other minerals including magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium. Quinoa is also gluten-free.

I like the chewy consistency (think brown rice) with a lightly nutty flavor. It lends itself well to both sweet and savory dishes.

How do you cook it?

Quinoa has a bitter coating (saponin) that should to be washed off before cooking (some packaged varieties are prewashed). Rinse the grain in a bowl or strainer and rub the seeds between your fingers to remove this coating.  I’ve seen recommendations to soak it overnight, but I’ve also cooked it right after rinsing.

Prepare quinoa by adding two parts water to one part washed grain, and bring it to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer until the water has evaporated and just to the surface of the grain. Turn the heat down to low, cover it and let it cook until fluffy when mixed with a fork.

I like it for breakfast with raisins and brown sugar with a bit of flax seed for crunch.

Rachelle will be posting her delicious quinoa and chickpea pilaf soon. Here’s a sneak preview, with yellow tomatoes from our garden:

There’s a joke floating around on the internet that goes something like this:

How many vegetarians does it take to change a lightbulb?

Just one, but where do you get your protein?

Of course there are other things than meat that have protein. We eat them regularly, even when we are eating meat dishes too. Off the top of my head, some of these in the last few days have been

black beans
yogurt
brown rice
hash browns

The better question is how much do we need? I looked over at the USDA site at the Dietary Reference Intakes provided by the National Academy of Sciences .

If I scroll down to the Macronutrients page I see that for me, a 49-year-old female, I need about 46 grams of protein per day.

Cool. But what does that mean? Taking the list above for example, I’d have:

(These numbers are taken from the list from UC Davis and the USDA National Nutrient Database.)

So it’s not a particularly hard task to get enough protein – another 1-2 grams for some juice plus 6 for an egg at breakfast, some peaches and cottage cheese (up to 28g for a cup), and I’m good for the day.

What’s your favorite protein source?