Posted By Sara Francis Posted 5 hours ago

Eating appetizing food while getting all the right nutrients is the premise for a new recipe book by Cochrane-based author Patrician Green and her sister Carolyn Hemming of Toronto.

“Quinoa: the Everyday Super Food 365″ shows the average consumer how to incorporate the rice-like seed into all kinds of foods from salads, to main courses, breakfasts, desserts and even baby food.

“Our goal is to bridge the gap between traditional eating habit and increasingly nutritious food choices,” said Patricia Green, a Saskatoon-native who’s made Cochrane her home with her husband and two children for the last 3.5 years.

“Growing up, everything was homemade and then when you have your own family you want to instill those values in them as well with healthy eating,” said Green.

Quinoa is gluten-free seed high in protein, iron, fiber and has a low glyecmic index. It’s an environmentally-friendly crop that grows in drought conditions in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

“It’s complete protein with all eight essential amino acids so it is a very efficient food,” said Green. “When people go and buy their foods and they are looking at how much nutrient value is in it, quinoa is one of those items where they can say I’m really getting my nutrients for the dollar.”

Green started preparing meals for her family using quinoa six years ago after a vegetarian friend introduced her to it. she then introduced it to her health-conscious sister who trains for marathons and got her cooking with it. Together they started collecting and creating quinoa-based recipes and eventually submitted their compilation to a publisher.

“There was no book on the market that targeted the average consumer like myself and my children who are average eaters, they are not extreme vegetarians, they like the tastes that everybody else enjoys,” said Green.

White quinoa is neutral and can be used in place of white rice, while black and red varities are similar to wild rice. the simplest way to prepare quinoa is in a rice cooker and then slowly incorporating it into breakfast cereals, salads and shakes. it also comes in the form of flour and flakes.

While the books boasts 170 tried and true recipes Green recommends her favourite — fresh cucumber and toasted almond salad with dill or her moist chocolate cake.

“It is just made with a quinoa seed, it is cooked like you would rice, then you can put it in your blender and mix it with your dry. you don’t even know it’s not white flour and you don’t know it’s not a regular chocolate cake.”