Quinoa has a unique, nutty taste. You can use it as a breakfast cereal. You can serve it cold with salad, hot with meat dishes, or sweet as a dessert. Andean people in particular have discovered a number of ways to eat quinoa.

“I never travel without quinoa,” says a former traveling minister of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Andes. “I must travel light, since, like everyone else, I go by bicycle. I always take along a bag of toasted quinoa flour. Mixed with water, it provides nourishing refreshment.”

Rosa, a Bolivian woman who grew up in a village on the altiplano, recalls yet other uses for the quinoa seeds. “Mother used to make quinoa bread and biscuits with the flour she ground with a stone, and often she would just serve boiled quinoa with an egg.” Later, Rosa moved to the city and worked for years as a cook for a wealthy family. She introduced them to a dish they became quite fond of: quinoa soup! “You just chop some onions, carrots, broad beans, and squash,” she explains, “and then boil them with whole washed quinoa grain in meat stock until the quinoa grains burst.a Salt may be added after it is cooked.”

What is the favorite quinoa dish among Rosa’s own children? “Tortillas!” cries a little boy. “Ah, yes,” replies Rosa, “they are easy to make. You just cook washed quinoa grains as you would normally cook rice but without salt. The quinoa can then be stirred into a paste with a spoon. Stir in an egg, a little milk, and some wheat flour. Now you may add a pinch of salt and a pinch of cinnamon. Then fry the mixture as you would pancakes, a spoonful at a time​—delicious!”