Healthy Dessert: Quinoa Coconut Pudding

Holidays such as Father's Day (today) always give me the opportunity to concoct scrumptious desserts. With limited ingredients in my kitchen this time, I decided to experiment with a quinoa dessert. I bought two bags of truRoots organic quinoa at 2/$7 from Whole Foods a while back, when I was looking for a carb substance to replace my run-of-the-mill pasta that I had been bringing to work. Since then, I have been discovering as well as creating different recipes using quinoa, including portobello stuffed quinoa and curry quinoa. I also learned that this versatile superfood can be used to make dessert puddings! 

Back in the fall, I made a delicious rice pudding. I figured I would base this quinoa pudding off that recipe and essentially substitute quinoa for the rice. This recipe yields roughly 6 servings and takes about 40 minutes. 

Ingredients:

- 1 cup quinoa (mine was the truRoots organic brand from Whole Foods at 2/$7)

- 1 cup light coconut milk (from Trader Joe's) 

- 1 cup 2% milk (whole milk would do better if you're looking for a rich pudding) 

- 1 cup water 

- 2/3 cup brown sugar, packed 

- pinch of salt 

- 1/4 tsp cinnamon

To start, rinse 1 cup of quinoa with cold water. The best way to do this would be to put the quinoa in a strainer and slowly run water over it. 

Combine the cup of coconut milk, milk, and water together in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Stir. After about 5 minutes or once the liquids have warmed up, add in the quinoa. 

For the next 20 minutes, stir constantly. Babysit closely as the mixture at medium-high setting could boil over if covered with lid. 

Lower to medium-low heat for 15 more minutes with occasional stirring. Mixture should now resemble a thicker pudding consistency. 

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Serve hot or chilled. *add fresh berries, if desired. I added dried cranberries. 

Received stamp of approval from my dad!