I think quinoa is one of the coolest grains ever. It's an ancient grain, which just means it has been around for thousands of years (i.e. 6,000 years to be exact, according to Wikipedia).

I've never even heard of quinoa until I started cooking for Z. I first found the recipe in Simply Natural Baby Food by Cathe Olson and after doing more research on the grain, I was sold.

Quinoa is not only a good source of dietary fibre, it is also high in protein, magnesium and iron. It is easily digestible which makes it ideal as baby's first grain. It is a tad smaller than raw sago and it comes in either a brown or red variety.

I would rinse the grains and then cook it like how I would cook rice porridge, i.e. one part quinoa to 2-3 parts water. And here's what is so cool about it, when it cooks, the germ will separate from the seed.

The cooked germ looks like a tiny white curl, as you can see from the picture.

To me, it tastes somewhat like barley.

I have since come up with many sweet and savoury combination of the dish, combining quinoa with apple puree, avocado, zucchini & yellow squash puree and Z's favourite, peas & chicken soup.

Here is a simple recipe of quinoa with apple puree and banana chunks
 

Yields: 1-2 servings

Ingredients:
2 tbsp of organic quinoa
2 oz of apple puree (I use frozen puree which I have cooked the weekend before)
1/2 of an organic banana (if baby is not comfortable with texture yet, it should be mashed)
A dash of organic ground cinnamon
1/4 cup of water, or as much as needed

Firstly, rinse the quinoa by placing the grains in a fine mesh hand colander and run tap water through them.

Transfer the grains to a small pot and add in the water. Bring the pot to a boil and then turn down the heat to medium-low heat and let simmer until cooked. This would take around 10-15 minutes. Add more water if necessary.

When the quinoa is cooked, add the apple puree and banana chunks to the pot. The heat from the quinoa would melt the apple puree.

Transfer everything to a bowl and finish it off with a dash of cinnamon.

Both fruits are a great complement to quinoa, not only in terms of flavour but also in nutritional value. And the high concentration of Vitamin C in both fruits will maximise the absorption of iron from the quinoa.

Tip:
I would usually cook extra quinoa to be stored in the fridge, ready to be reheated for Z’s next meal.