Q is for Quinoa Fried Rice

The first time I tried quinoa, I hated it. HATED it. 

A couple of years ago, I participated in a Pinterest Challenge by Anna Hartman from In The Next 30 Days. She challenged bloggers to make a recipe or project from one of our "eleventy-billion" Pinterest pins that we've pinned but not made. I gave a recipe for Crispy Quinoa Bake a try and it was not good. Not good at all. I hated the texture. I hated the recipe itself (bland and uninteresting). 

In spite of my (some say) picky eating habits, I decided to give quinoa another try last year and actually found a couple of recipes that we not only like, we LOVE: black bean and quinoa enchilada bake and little quinoa patties that taste like little crab cakes. 

For the A to Z Challenge, I decided to search through Pinterest and try to find a quinoa recipe to add to our little bitty repertoire of quinoa recipes (all two of them). 

I ran across this one:

Found on cookingforkeeps.com

We like fried rice, so it seemed like a sure winner.

It wasn't.

Know what happens if you stir-fry quinoa like you would rice?

You get a big, gummy glob of quinoa that tastes like fried rice.

Because quinoa is much more fragile than rice is. 

I'd show you, but I forgot to take any pictures.

If you were watching your carbs and had a craving for gummy fried rice, then I guess I'd tell you to go ahead and give it a try, but otherwise, just make rice. 

Trust me.