Curried Quinoa Salad

In a world where rice and wheat reign supreme, sometimes you want something more. Maybe you have a food allergy, maybe you have special health needs that your regular diet just isn't meeting, or maybe you just wanting more exciting than the status quo. Regardless of your reasons for upgrading your grain options, you've got an entire rainbow of whole grains to choose from besides rice and wheat.

Take, for example, the humble millet. Often thought of as only bird seed, millet is actually very much edible by humans. Mentioned in the Bible, people have been eating millet for many thousands of years in countries such as China, India, and Africa. What's so great about millet? Well, first of all, it's not acid-forming and is known for being easy to digest, so those who deal with any number of digestive ailments can usually enjoy millet without aggravating their GI. Taste-wise, Millet is mildly sweet with a nutty flavor and contains many beneficial nutrients, such as protein, fiber, B-vitamins, iron, magnesium, potassium, and more.

Another alternative grain you might consider is quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah). Another old-world grain, quinoa has also been cultivated for thousands of years in South America. The Inca revered quinoa as a very important part of their culture, and used it to make breads, cereals, and other dishes. Not technically a grain, quinoa is actually a grass seed, much like buckwheat.

Quinoa has a nutty, hearty flavor that makes it ideal for both savory dishes and sweet breakfast recipes. It is high in protein, calcium, iron, vitamin B, and vitamin E. The protein in quinoa a "complete protein" due to the presence of all eight essential amino acids, something that's not often seen in cereals or grains. Note: Before being eaten, quinoa grains must be rinsed to remove its bitter coating, called saponin. When rinsing quinoa, be sure to keep the water flowing until there are so soap-like suds when you agitate the seeds with your hands. Once the water runs clear, the saponin is gone.

Where can you buy millet and quinoa? You'll be happy to hear that both grains are readily available at health food stores, and if you like, you can even buy them online. While you can buy boxed millet and quinoa, you'll usually find them cheaper by shopping in the bulk section of your local natural foods store.

You can buy millet and quinoa in several different forms, as well:

• Puffed Millet Cereal
• Quinoa Pasta
• Quinoa Flakes for Hot Cereal
• Millet Flour for Making Bread

To get you started, here are a few recipes for these awesome grains. Once you give them a try, they might just become your new favorite carb!

Nutty Millet Porridge

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 cup raw millet
5 cups water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 teaspoons butter
6 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup fresh blueberries or dried cranberries

Directions:
1. Heat a medium pot over medium heat. Add millet, stirring grains until they become fragrant. Add water and salt, and bring to a boil.

2. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until millet if soft like oatmeal. Add butter and honey, stirring well. Serve hot, topped with fruit.

Curried Quinoa Salad

Serves 6 as a side or 4 for lunch

Ingredients:
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups uncooked quinoa
4 cups water
2 mangoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch chunks
1 fresh serrano chile, seeded and minced
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
1/2 cup salted roasted cashews or peanuts, chopped

Preparation:
1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt, lime juice, curry powder, ginger, salt, and pepper. Slowly drizzle in oil, whisking until fully combined.

2. Rinse quinoa in a bowl for 5 minutes, using fingers to agitate grains and the water runs through it. Agitating while rinsing will help remove the bitter saponin.

3. In a large pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil with a few pinches of salt. Add quinoa to boiling water and cook for 15 minutes, until grains are almost completely cooked through but still just a little crunchy. Strain and rinse with cold water. Let sit to drain for 15 minutes.

4. Mix quinoa with curried yogurt and stir well. Stir in mango, bell pepper, Serrano chili, mint, and nuts. Serve at room temperature.

If you like these grain recipes, check out these other healthy, protein-rich posts:

• Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies
• Quinoa Salmon Burgers
• Perfect Coconut Millet
• Millet Flatbread Tortilla
• Chickpea Spinach Curry Recipe
• How to Cook Dried Beans When You Don't Have Time to Cook Dried Beans

Teaching kids to eat and drink healthfully requires much more than admonitions. After carting away the vending machines and abolishing the Big Gulps, we can't leave the kids empty-handed. Rachelle Boucher from Generation Chefs is working hard to fill the void. From the popular Pizza Smack-Downs at COPIA to her weekly cooking classes (free to high school students) in the beautifully outfitted kitchen at the Marin Youth Center (MYC a.k.a. "Mike") she's bringing fresh, whole, homemade food generously flavored with reaffirming messages and lots of common sense to a wide and diverse group of kids.


A visit to one of her cooking classes reveals her consummate skill in converting teens to the cause of healthy eating. Endowed with humor, warmth, and endless energy, she's a master of choreographing 25 wary bundles of apathy and hormones into productive teams of excited, skilled, fruit-and vegetable-loving cooks.

Rachelle hefts up 20 pounds of refined sugar so the kids can see how much the average American teenager consumes every six weeks.

Her class this past week highlighted our favorite fruit of the season--strawberries--along with one very shiny, red bike blender. The lesson for the day involved putting down sugary drinks and sipping fruit smoothies instead. In addition to fresh strawberries, melons, and bananas, the teen chefs could choose from a colorful array of juices, frozen fruit, yogurts, and natural flavorings. Most importantly, they learned that not a single grain of added sugar was needed to create a delicious drink.

A rainbow of sweet goodness just before the pedal action.

Mike Graham-Squire from the Youth Leadership Institute joined the class to show the teens how to select ingredients, calculate food costs, determine servings sizes and overall yield, and--most importantly of all--operate the bike blender. As representatives of schools and local community organizations, the kids were also learning how smoothies can be a healthful, interactive, and effective fundraising tool at large events.

From the Country of Marin's Nutrition Wellness Program, nutritionist Ellen Szakal taught the class how to read product labels to determine the number of teaspoons of sugar in each serving. A chart listing their favorite snacks and a hands--on exercise counting out a disconcertingly large pile of sugar cubes helped them understand just how much unnecessary sugar they were consuming each day.

It's a skill adults could use, too.

Calculating How Much Sugar Is In A Container
Looking at the Nutrition Facts label on the side of the package, find the number of grams of sugar. Then divide that number by 4. For example, ingesting 65 grams of sugar in a 20-ounce drink bottle (considered 1 serving) means swallowing 17 individual teaspoons of sugar.

So much youthful energy, it takes extra hands to hold the jar still.

Berkeley-based Juice Peddler sells kits for retrofitting bikes to become human-powered blenders. From the first-generation's endearingly clunky tricycle platform and antique hand-drill to the fifth-generation's sleek, high-density polyethylene design, the company has been at the forefront of DIY bike blender technology.

The kids took turns pedaling their fruit concoctions and proudly shared tastes of their icy treats with other teams. Lined up for judging, the smoothies created a rainbow of delicious fun: Monkey Melons, Fruit-A-Palooza, Pink Panther, Go Mango, Fruit-A-Licious, and Pink-A-Licous Strawberry.

I'm glad I didn't have to judge, as it would have been a tough call to pick just one winner.

Sammy and Brittney confer on the formulation of their team's smoothie.

Pinkalicious Strawberry Smoothie
The members of Team Pinkalicious decided to celebrate the happy coincidence of their clothing colors with an appropriately hued smoothie.

Serves: 6

Ingredients
10 ounces strawberries, hulled
1 banana, chopped
1 cup frozen berry medley
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 cup orange mango juice concentrate

Preparation
1. Place all ingredients in the jar of a blender.
2. Blend until completely mixed.
3. Serve immediately.

Minted Strawberry Agua Fresca
Another excellent recipe from Generation Chefs that highlights the current season's bumper crop.

Serves: 6

Ingredients
2 cups ice cubes
3 cups strawberries, hulled
2 small mint leaves, optional
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice
3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
6 whole strawberries, split 3/4 up from the point, for garnish
6 mint sprigs, for garnish

Preparation
1. Place all ingredients in a blender in the order listed.
2. Blend until completely mixed. Taste and adjust for sweetness or tartness as desired.
3. Pour into chilled glasses, garnish with mint sprigs, and slide a berry onto the rim of each glass.

We've all heard the latest health advice: Avoid transfats. Eat more fruits and vegetables. You may notice those changes on grocery store shelves, but for many school children, their cafeteria lunch menus haven't caught up. This year, an effort to get healthy foods to the school lunch table is tied up in a much larger debate -- national farm policy.

What do you think should be in a school lunch? School lunch programs face major challenges. In addition to buying food, they must cover overhead and staffing. Often the products that bring most money come from vending machines.

What about demand? Should schools be responsible for changing the way kids eat, replacing the french fries with veggies? Tell us your thoughts by leaving a comment
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Listen to the "What's For Lunch" Radio report on QUEST.

Post by Lauren Sommer who reports for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.