Quinoa Flour’s Bitter & Grassy Taste
Ok, so I have to admit, I have tried time and time again to use quinoa flour and each time I come out completely disappointed! Have you tried quinoa flour only to be disappointed?
- First, I couldn’t stand the grassy smell of quinoa flour and it carried right over into the dish I was making.
- Second, I didn’t have success with cooking with it. It seemed to have a strange texture…strange taste, strange texture that’s 2 strikes.
- Third, it wasn’t easily found in my grocery stores. Yep, the 3 strikes your out certainly applies here!
So I started experimenting to solve all of these 3 strikes and I was super excited when I hit a home run in the quinoa world! (I know, I know…I just love baseball though) 😉
Making Your Own Quinoa Flour
So my first task was making my own quinoa flour. Who knew that it would be so easy to make!
- First, order yourself some organic quinoa.
- Next place your quinoa into a high powered food processor, Vitamix or Blendtec. If you do not have any of these, a coffee/herb grinder works just as well.
- Now just grind until a flour forms. This time will vary depending on which devise you are using to grind.
That’s it! I know so simple right? Now lets move on to roasting the flour. Please do not skip this step! It makes this flour slightly sweet with a touch of sourness, perfect if you ask me!
The Texture of Freshly Ground Quinoa Flour
Check out the picture above of the freshly ground quinoa flour. Kind of reminds me of almond flour with its coarse texture.
The texture will change through the roasting process and this is another key reasons why it is important to roast the quinoa flour.
Once you roast the quinoa flour, it will become a finer flour and will have the consistency of an all purpose flour. It will absorb better when baking and will create more consistent results.
Toasting Quinoa Flour
Roasting quinoa flour really is quite simple. Follow these quick and easy steps and you will have the best quinoa flour you have ever tasted, for real!!
Toasted Quinoa Flour
Prep Time: 5 mins- Total Time: 5 minutes
Yield: Varies depending how much you make
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- 1 pound quinoa (see instructions above on how to make your own quinoa flour)
- You can also use store bought quinoa flour, but I prefer to freshly grind my flour, it is fresher and the nutrients remain in the flour when freshly ground.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220ºF
- Place the freshly ground flour (you can also use store bought quinoa flour) onto a rimmed pan. You do not have to measure, just make sure that it doesn’t reach the thickness of more than 1/4″ deep.
- Roast for 2 1/2 – 3 hours. I know it might seem like a long time, but you don’t have to turn the flour or anything, just pop it in the oven and in 3 hours it is done! How simple is that?
- When you start roasting your quinoa flour, you will have a very earthy, grassy smell throughout the house. The smell will change over the course of the cooking time.
- Remove from oven and allow to completely cool.
- Once cooled, place in an air tight container and store in the freezer.
- Quinoa can quickly become rancid. Just like with any freshly ground or roasted flours, it is best to freeze them so that the flour remain fresh and doesn’t turn rancid.
Notes
See “Equipment Carousel” below to see the equipment that I recommend for this recipe.
Recommended Equipment
Check out this carousel above to see the products that I recommend for this recipe. Just click and hold on the arrow in lower right corner to scroll through. To learn more about the product, just click on the image. Pretty cool, right? 🙂
Now That Smells Good!
You will notice that the house will start to smell sweeter and eventually you will not smell the flour anymore.
When you get to that point, you know your roasted quinoa flour is done!
The Texture of Toasted Quinoa Flour
Take a look at the texture of this toasted quinoa flour. Do you see a change? It is quite a bit finer and resembles the texture of an all purpose flour.
Be sure to allow it to completely cool and then store in an air tight container and store in the freezer. As with any freshly ground flours, it is best to store the flour in the freezer to keep the flour from going rancid.
It will last 6 months in the freezer so feel free to roast a large quantity.
Lets Start Cooking With Quinoa Flour Shall We?
Ok so now that we have this awesome flour, lets start creating some amazing quinoa flour recipes.
Stay tuned, because I have whipped up some pretty amazing recipes using quinoa flour that I can’t wait to share!
Share Your Thought
I am really interested to hear your thoughts on this?
Have you ever roasted a flour before or is this the first time you have heard of this?
hallecottistessadomesticdivaof course, here are some:
http://www.tessadomesticdiva.com/2013/01/banana-chocolate-muffins-gluten-free-vegan-super-nutritious.html
http://www.tessadomesticdiva.com/2011/04/classic-banana-bread.html
http://www.tessadomesticdiva.com/2012/05/10-days-of-gluten-free-whole-wheat-flour-tortillas.html
hallecottis Not for Atkins. I’ve lost over 20 in a about 3 months. I am determined to get some weight off. 🙂
I really love eating low carb. Never have liked low fat products or the idea of it. Low calories don’t get it either. For me, low carb is the way to go for overall health. Mind you, I’m just expressing my opinion. 🙂
Thanks for posting – I use quinoa flour in banana bread and am not too pleased with the funky taste – hopefully this will remedy it!
Nice!
Hi Halle, Just curious, have you ever tried using quinoa flour in your sourdough bread recipe or would that be a complete disaster?Thanks for the amazing recipes!
Amy
Amy Bowen I think it would work out great Amy! I have never tried it though, but quinoa flour acts like whole wheat flour so I think it would work out great. Let us know if you try it how it turns out 🙂
Thankyou so much for this post. I had so much fun making my own quinoa flour. I rinsed it and dry toasted it in a pan to remove the bitterness. Alas. My tortillas taste unhealthily bitter. Like stop eating now! I can toast the rest of my flour now! Phew! Thankyou so much! 🙂
@donna let us know how it works. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
DH and I are/am prepared to live w/o electricity and water. So I now have the bomb diggity of a flour mill that will grind anything into any kind of flour fineness you’d want. I’m trying it w/quinoa. Or it may be easier to just mill it up in a blender. I like easiest with less mess. Hunting for your recipes now. Stoked to know of this amazing website…it’s enhanced my life!
Once toasted, is it ready to eat? I would like to use it for my toddler’s cereal but unsure if further cooking would be necessary. Thanks
Once toasted it is ready to bake with. I wouldn’t just add it to something without cooking it or baking with it.
I need to try this. I made pancakes a couple of days ago…quinoa flour and ground cashews. The quinoa flour odor was overpowering. The odor is part of the taste, but otherwise the pancakes were awesome (from The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet). I knew I needed to work with toasted quinoa flour (I had read this in one of my cookbooks), but I didn’t have the time so I figured I’d experience raw quinoa flour first-hand. I learned. My question(s) to you is(are)…do I really need to freeze the flour? Would the refrigerator also work? If you really recommend freezing vs. refrigerating, is there any thawing necessary before baking? Does the flour clump or freeze together in the freezer, or will it be completely separate and workable like when I store flours in the refrigerator? Also…when I cook with quinoa, I rinse it even if the package says it has been rinsed. Since we’ll be toasting/roasting the flour after processing/grinding, do you feel it’s okay to skip the rinsing of the whole quinoa (pre-grinding)? Thanks so much. You’re an excellent resource.
I’m so excited to try this! I made some pumpkin bread the other day with half-unbleached flour, and half ground quinoa+flax. It came out fine (I’m enjoying some right now!) but my husband didn’t like that it still tasted a bit like pumpkin quinoa instead of good ol’ pumpkin bread. SO I can’t wait to try the same recipe again, only with the roasted flour this time! If I could go 100% quinoa, I’d be baking these puppies all the time!!
Thanks for the post, Halle!
~Amanda
1/2 of http://www.TheGreatestCoupleOnEarth.com