Freezing Quinoa
If you like quinoa, or if you have tried these pancakes, freezing quinoa will make your life much easier. Cook a whole bunch of quinoa as directed on the package, cool, and seperate (I recommend measuring into one or two cup increments) into freezer bags. That’s it! I believe I cooked two cups of dry quinoa for a yield of approximately 8 cups cooked quinoa. The pancake recipe calls for one cup, but I doubled it…so this would a lot of pancakes! You could have some warm quinoa with fresh herbs, a bit of lemon juice and olive oil as a side for dinner and freeze what ever is left. Then, when you get the craving for hot quinoa cakes in the morning, just remember to throw a bag of frozen quinoa in the fridge to thaw overnight. This eliminates the longest step in the process of making the pancakes. I am all about saving time. If you’re making quinoa, might as well make a bunch, right!?! It would be fine revamped into a side dish as well; I don’t think it loses much flavor or texture in the freezing process.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes – freezing grains is a great tip. Whenever I make too much rice and put it in the fridge it gets dry and inedible. I only recently realized “duh – sometimes I buy frozen rice, why not freeze my own!”. Once I re-heat it, its soft & fluffy again!
Oooooh, what a great tip! I make dishes with quinoa ALL the time but have never thought to cook it, freeze it, and have it ready when I want to use it. Brilliant. Thanks!
I’ve been freezing brown rice and googled to see about freezing quinoa – glad to see you’ve tried it and liked it!
I’m single so cooking for one, and I freeze my brown rice in 1/2 cup servings using 4 oz mason jars. Going to give that a try with the quinoa tonight!
Great! I hope it works out well for you. One of my favorite tricks.
Hi, may I ask how do I thaw frozen quinoa besides using microwave? Can I just leave it to thaw on the counter? Thanks!
I usually just thaw mine overnight in the fridge. You could definitely do it on the counter though for a few hours. Microwave should work too, actually!
{ 2 trackbacks }