How to Rinse Quinoa
on Apr 27, 2018, Updated Jul 28, 2020
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If you’ve ever wondered how to rinse quinoa, you’ll love our Easy Rinse Method for Quinoa! Along with showing you how to make apples last longer, this is one of our most popular kitchen hacks and tips.
We have a few quinoa recipes here on Platter Talk. Quniona is the ancient power food that is making a resurgence in the 21 century.
I try to use more of it in our menu planning and one of my favorites quinoa recipes is Costco’s Quinoa Salad. (That’s on my list of must-make copycat recipes!)
How to Rinse Quinoa
As you may or may not know, quinoa needs to be rinsed with cold water before cooking it. This simple process will help get rid of the bitter-tasting compound (saponin) that coats the tiny seeds; if you don’t do it, it’s going to taste wrong and you’ll never want to use this ancient power food again in your diet. We don’t want that!
Because the quinoa seeds are so tiny, you don’t want them to disappear down your kitchen sink drain when you rinse them. Here’s where things get fun: Use a fine-mesh strainer or a coffee filter for an easy way to rinse quinoa!
Be sure and check out our top tips to make you a better cook. You may also be interested in how to grease a cake pan and what plates are safe to use in an air fryer. Who knows what you may learn to make your life in the kitchen just a little easier and less complicated?
Updated from the original publication date of November 8, 2013
Thanks for the tips! I don’t use quinoa but I feel I should give it a go now.
I didn’t realize it was so important to give quinoa a good rise and what a genius way to do it! Thanks for sharing!
I eat a ton of quinoa and I always rinse it before I use it. I never thought of using a coffee filter. That’s a great hack if you don’t have a strainer. Thanks for the awesome tips!
Such a great tip (and good reminder!). Love the coffee strainer idea as well!
Using a coffee strainer is genius! Those little guys are so hard to rinse.
I love quinoa and this is always a problem for me! Thanks for the clever solution. Thanks for linking up at #SaucySaturdays.
Thanks for the nice comments, Christine. I hope you enjoy this food flash for rinsing quinoa!
Excellent tip Dan, and yes you really have to rinse that quinoa. Some times I get the already rinsed quinoa to save some time. 🙂
Thanks for the comments, it’s good to know there is pre-rinsed quinoa available as well!
Where is the pre-rinsed available?
Check with your local grocery store or maybe look on line.
Excellent tip, Dan! This is great for all those cooks without fine mesh strainers. I think I have at least 5 fine mesh stainers varying in size. LOVE this easy method! Thanks for sharing!
Stacy,
I can’t even begin to imagine how many strainers, of all sizes, that you must have in your kitchen! (Just realized that I would like to have a look in THOSE cupboards!! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, I love to hear from you. 🙂
This is genius!!! I always end up getting quinoa all over my sink when I rinse it. Can’t wait to try this!
It’s great to here from you and I’m happy that you can benefit from this idea! Thanks for the comments!!
We actually use saponin (in powder form) in some of my experiments in lab! So yes, rinse rinse rinse that quinoa!
Joanne,
Sounds like a bitter experiment…. 🙂 Thanks for the comment and wish you a great weekend