These muffins are hearty, healthy and taste great!
I’ve mentioned previously that I really love getting ideas from Pinterest. I first had quinoa at the White House when I had lunch there for the first Kids’ State Dinner. After that I was hooked on quinoa and I searched for lots of different ways of cooking it.
Today’s recipe was originally a Pinterest recipe for Martha Stewart Quinoa Muffins.
We had to healthify it a little bit. I’ve put the link to the original recipe above, and I’ll make notes to tell you how we changed the recipe to suit our needs.
Everyone in our house likes these muffins. I’ve made them twice now, once following the original recipe back in the fall, and once a few weeks ago with our modifications. If you haven’t cooked with quinoa, I encourage you to try it. I like having another ingredient option for my cooking and baking. The last time I used it, I cooked up a big batch and used some for the muffins, some for a side dish with dinner another night, and some I ate like oatmeal in the mornings for my breakfast. It’s quite the versatile ingredient.
QUINOA MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil, such as safflower, plus more for pan (We used 1/4 cup plain, nonfat yogurt.)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan (We used 1 cup wheat flour, 1 cup white flour.)
- 3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup raisins (We used craisins for half the batch and chocolate chips for the other half the batch.)
- 3/4 cup whole milk (We used skim milk.)
- 1 large egg (We used egg substitute.)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Splitting the batch in half allowed for using both craisins and chocolate chips as filling options.
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa and 1 cup water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cover, and cook until water has been absorbed and quinoa is tender, 11 to 13 minutes.
- Meanwhile, brush a standard 12-cup muffin pan with oil; (we used fat free nonstick spray) dust with flour, tapping out excess. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, raisins, and 2 cups cooked quinoa; reserve any leftover quinoa for another use.
- In a small bowl, whisk together oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, and stir just until combined; divide batter among prepared muffin cups.
- Bake until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
The Whole bag of Chips 
I should really try these, I have never cooked or baked anything with quinoa. I also like your tray , it looks lovely
Believe it or not I got that tray before I was married, which is going on 18 years this coming fall. There aren’t too many things left from those days but that tray is one of my favorites. I totally love hearts.
I researched how to cook quinoa. You need a mesh strainer because it’s so tiny it goes through the holes of regular strainers. Then you rinse it and cook it and use it as you wish. I really like it.