5 Healthy Benefits of Quinoa and Tex Mex Quinoa Salad

I’m crazy for Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah or ke-NO-ah)!    Quinoa is jam packed with flavor, nutrients and all kinds of goodness.  I’m excited to share my top 5 favorite healthy benefits of quinoa and one of our family favorite quinoa recipes.

My top 5 favorite healthy benefits of quinoa:

1. Quinoa is a complete protein containing all nine essential amino acids. Why is this important? Well because your body needs 22 different types of amino acids to function properly. We can synthesize 13 of those within the body, but the other 9 MUST be obtained from food, making them essential. 1 cup of cooked quinoa boasts 8 gm of protein.
2. Iron, iron & iron! Iron is an essential mineral. Its kind of important because it helps to transport oxygen throughout the body. If you don’t have enough iron, your body can’t make enough healthy oxygen-carrying red blood cells. A lack of red blood cells can also lead to iron deficiency anemia. There are many other benefits of iron; it aids in neurotransmitter synthesis, regulation of body temperature, enzyme activity and energy metabolism. Women of child bearing age especially need to get their iron! 1 cup cooked quinoa contains 2.8mg (15% DV) of iron.
3. Quinoa is fiber rich! It contains almost twice as much fiber as most other whole grains. Fiber aids in digestion, which requires bile acids, which are made partly with cholesterol. As your digestion improves, the liver pulls cholesterol from the blood to create more bile acid, this process reduces LDL, the bad cholesterol. It also helps to prevent heart disease by reducing high blood pressure and diabetes, plus it lowers cholesterol and glucose levels – all good stuff. There are 5 gm of fiber in 1 cup of cooked quinoa, that’s 21% DV {daily value}.
4. Quinoa contains large amounts of flavonoids, including Quercetin and Kaempferol. Flavanoids are usually found in berries and best known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory health benefits as well as the support of the cardiovascular and nervous systems. Because they also help support detoxification of potentially tissue-damaging molecules, they have often been associated with a decreased risk of certain types of cancers, including lung and breast cancer.
5. Quinoa is high in minerals, many of which a lot of people are lacking. This is particularly true of Magnesium, Potassium, Zinc and Iron {see #2}. Interestingly, quinoa is very high in all 4 minerals. It is particularly high in magnesium, with one cup having about 32% DV.

In addition, quinoa is gluten free, low on the glycemic index and easy to make & incorporate into your diet. 

One of my favorite quinoa recipes is below.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.  It’s so easy to make and is a favorite at backyard BBQs.  Enjoy!

Tex Mex Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup dry quinoa 
1 can organic black beans
1 can organic corn
2 tomatoes 
bunch of organic cilantro
1 avocado
cumin
cayenne
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. cook quinoa according to directions and let cool.
2. drain corn, rinse black beans, cube avocado, dice tomato, chop up cilantro and set aside
3. add rinsed black beans, drained corn, avocado, tomato and spices to cooled quinoa and mix.  Add more spices to taste – we don’t measure just sprinkle in until we it’s spicy or not spicy enough.  We like it spicy so we add more.  You can use taco seasoning – we prefer to use the individual spices to avoid the extra salt in prepackaged taco seasoning.
4. add cilantro to taste and as a topping.

Now it’s your turn

What’s your favorite Quinoa recipe or how will you incorporate into your diet?

Image credit: rosinka79 / 123RF Stock Photo