In the mountains of Peru, Chile and Bolivia thousands of years ago, the Inca people ate a diet rich with avocados, squash, peppers and corn. But their “mother grain” or “chisaya mama” was quinoa. Quinoa was considered sacred by the Incas. This spiritual importance led to the Spanish eradicating quinoa cultivation when they colonized South America 16 centuries ago. Instead, they substituted it with wheat. But what they didn’t know at the time was that the Incas were onto something: quinoa is special. It’s not only a great nutritional powerhouse, it could also be the solution for world hunger. Here’s everything you need to know about the ancient crop, including how to cook it yourself from home.
What is quinoa?
While the Incas thought of quinoa as the mother grain, it is actually a “pseudo-grain.” This means that it mimics the nutritional content of grains, and it’s eaten in a very similar way, but it’s not really a grain, it’s a seed, and it grows on Chenopodium quinoa plants. There are many varieties of quinoa. The most popular is white.
As the west has caught on to the crop’s nutritional benefits and…
