Basic Quinoa

I've been meaning to try quinoa for some time now so when errands took me across from Whole Foods, I stopped in and picked some up (also some Tamari, some mirin, some rice vinegar, some Thai tofu and some tempeh. Blast you impulse buys!!) I cooked it up - without washing it like everything I've ever read says to. We don't have a sieve and quinoa is SMALL. Way too small for our makeshift colander. I would go into more details about that but there can only be so many asides in one post. The quinoa cooked up VERY easily and quickly. I sauteed some beet greens from the other day and threw in some kidney beans, topped it all off with some Thai Crystal and had a shockingly filling and delicious meal. I mean, I was full for HOURS later and I probably had one and half cups of food. One downside to vegetarian eating is that, after a low protein meal, one gets very hungry, very fast. Quinoa to the rescue! I toasted the quinoa prior to cooking it (to give it a 'nuttier' taste as CD says) and it really was great. Probably some of the best rice - with the most character- I've ever had. We'll be seeing quite a bit more of this hearty little guy.