The Costco Connection - September 2017

QUINOA CUISINE

HERE ARE some quick and easy ways to incorporate quinoa into your diet.

• Toasted quinoa is simple to make and adds a tasty crunch to cereals, parfaits and granolas.

• Add cooked quinoa to eggs. The new flavor and texture is a nice change from the usual scrambled eggs and toast.

• Mix cooked quinoa with quick oats and sprinkle in some fresh berries, milk, pepitas or sunflower seeds.

DURING A QUICK midweek dinner of Costco rotisserie chicken, fresh green beans and Kirkland Signature™ Organic Quinoa, I decided to play a game with my ;-year-old daughter. “If you were stranded in a desert and could eat only one thing, what would it be?” I asked her.

“Chocolate, silly!” she responded.

My response? Quinoa. I received puzzled looks from everyone at the table, but I was steadfast in my reasoning: Quinoa requires minimal water to grow and provides minerals and an abundance of easily digestible protein—factors that are very important to surviving life in the desert. Teasing aside, quinoa is an incredible food that I’m glad to have discovered, and I am even more excited that Costco has partnered with four amazing suppliers to produce the Kirkland Signature organic quinoa that my family can’t seem to get enough of.

What exactly is quinoa?

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is an
ancient seed that is grown from sea level to
;;,;;; feet in altitude, primarily in the
mountains and highland plateaus of Peru
and Bolivia. There are hundreds of varie-
ties of quinoa; the most common are
white, red and black. Some types are as
small as a poppy seed, while others are
closer in size to a grain of rice. While many
assume quinoa is a grain, it is actually a
seed harvested from a plant species called
goosefoot and it is more closely related to
spinach and beets than to grains. You can
even eat the leaves on a quinoa bush.

Once cooked (an easy ;;-minute process similar to cooking rice), quinoa has a curly “tail” that sticks out. That tail is the germ separating from the seed, indicating the quinoa is ready.

In addition to being cooked like a grain, quinoa can be used in many different forms, including flakes, flour, pasta and polenta.

Where does it come from?

Quinoa was first domesticated about ;,;;; years ago in the Andean region of South America. Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile were among the first countries to grow it. Today, Costco sources its quinoa primarily from Bolivia and Peru, says Kristen Hayes, a Costco dry grocery buyer. She explains that quinoa is sold in Costco locations around the globe. The U.S. is the largest consumer, followed by Europe and then Canada, she says.

Kirkland Signature organic quinoa is
cultivated by traditional smallholder
farmers (anyone who operates on ;; acres
or less in Peru or Bolivia) who are commit-
ted to sustainably growing organic quinoa
using the same farming techniques their
ancestors did generations ago.

How does quinoa grow?

In Bolivia, farmers grow their quinoa near the Bolivian salt flats, explains Sergio Nuñez de Arco, CEO and co-founder of Andean Naturals, one of the main suppliers of Kirkland Signature organic quinoa. “No other crop will grow there besides quinoa, because of the altitude, salty soil and lack of water,” he says. “You have to time the planting just right. A couple of weeks before the start of the rainy season, farmers dig holes about ; inches deep to reach the trapped moisture from the previous year’s rains. They drop the [annual] quinoa seeds, hoping this is enough moisture for the baby plants to grow until the rains