No. 329 - Quinoa

Today is Thanksgiving Day and we were enjoying lots of great food at a relative's house. I had a slice of pumpkin cake roll, which was great but I didn't expect it to have nuts in it. I asked and was told they were walnuts, which I don't particularly like. But since I learned yesterday that walnuts are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, I suppose I should start to like them.

Later my wife told me that the tortilla chips contained flaxseeds, also high in Omega-3. So I ate them too. I might have gotten my daily recommended dosage of Omega-3s today. Yeah me!

My wife told me the tortilla chips were made out of quinoa.

I learned that quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. It comes from the Andes Mountains of South America and its origins are truly ancient. Quinoa was one of the three staple foods, along with corn and potatoes, of the Inca civilization.

Technically quinoa is not a true grain, but is the seed of the goosefoot (chenopodium) plant. It is used as a grain and substituted for grains because of its cooking characteristics. The name comes from the Greek words, chen (a goose) and pous (a foot). This is due to a resemblance of the leaves of the plant to the webbed foot of a goose.

Quinoa and flaxseeds? It still tasted like a tortilla chip to me.