Quinoa Jaggery Payasam

Hi Buddies,

This is my first post on this blog!!!  So, I decided to share one of Aarush’s favorite dishes. Aashu being a picky eater, cooking for him is the most difficult task that I ever faced. There are days when we hardly take 2 spoons of rice/ one-fourth of a chapati. Not because he is not hungry, but he wants to taste something different. Needless to say, it has to be very appealing and tasty. With all these, it’s extremely challenging for a vegetarian to find the right nutrition. That’s when I came across Super food “Quinoa”. It’s a very healthy and tasty food (Very rarely we find this combo 🙂 ). Check this link Quinoa Benefits for more details. I have experimented on lot of recipes with this grain and “Quinoa Payasam” is one of them.  There are many wonderful web posts on this recipe (with sugar) from my friends but I personally love to avoid sugar for health benefits. So, I decided to try it with jaggery and it came out very well. Hope you all would love it!!!

Preparation Time:  30 minutes
No of Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Quinoa: ¼ cup
Water: 1 cup
Milk: 1 cup
Jaggery: ¾ cup (adjust to your taste)
Cardamom: 1
Raisins: few
Cashew: few
Ghee: 1 tbsp.

Method:
1. Wash quinoa properly to avoid bitter taste.
2. Cook quinoa either using pressure cooker (which is very quick and same as cooking rice) or cook directly in a vessel (this takes little longer around 15mins).

3. After Quinoa is almost cooked, add milk, jaggery and mix it well. Let it cook for 7-8 minutes on medium to slow flame.

4. Meanwhile, heat a 1 tbsp. of ghee in a small pan and add cashews and raisins to it. Roast them until it becomes golden brown.
5. By now payasam must be ready. Add cardamom powder and garnish it with dry fruits.

6. Remove from heat, cool it and serve.