Quinoa is one of my favourite foods and when it’s cooked in lots of delicious natural flavours it’s just so yummy! It’s also really good for you, hence it’s superfood status. Quinoa is a gluten-free grain, containing all nine essential amino acids, which makes it a complete protein; a great addition to a plant-based diet. Chia seeds are a great source of skin-loving omega-3 as well as fibre and calcium, for healthy bones. Chia seeds in this recipe act as the binding egg replacement, they really make the thickness of the loaf and add to the bountiful amounts of goodness each slice of this bread delivers. Experimenting with different gluten-free loaves of bread was a little daunting, so I decided I wanted to make something simple, full of flavour, incredibly nutritious and bursting with plant protein… so the idea for this loaf was born. I have often in the past blended quinoa and chia seeds as ingredients to make flatbreads, which have always been a great success, so I decided to use this as the base of my bread, and boy did it work well! This Quinoa bread, is not your normal loaf in texture, because it’s flourless and gluten-free it doesn’t rise so much, so don’t worry that it hasn’t cooked when you take it out the oven! However, the fluffiness of the quinoa gives the bread a lovely lightness whilst being wonderfully dense in nutrients, so just a few slices will keep you energised and satisfied for ages.
The only preparation you need to do in advance is soaking the quinoa and chia seeds overnight, the rest is easy!
The Ingredients
2 cups quinoa
3/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup mixed seeds
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp raw honey/maple syrup
60 ml extra virgin olive oil
Method
Step 1: The night before you plan on baking the bread you need to soak the uncooked quinoa & chia seeds. Measure out the quinoa and chia seeds and place in two separate bowls. Cover the chia seeds with 1 cup of water, and the quinoa with enough water cover well. Place both in the fridge overnight.
Step 2: Preheat the oven to 160 degrees-Celsius. Drain the quinoa. In a blender, add half the quinoa, chia seeds, baking soda, raw honey/maple syrup, olive oil and lemon juice. Blend until the mixture is almost smooth, then stir in the other half of the quinoa. Pour the mixture into a bread tin lined with parchment paper scatter the top with your mixed seeds. Place in the oven and bake for around 70 minutes, or until you can stick a knife in and it comes out clean.
This bread is best either toasted or sliced and baked in the oven. The ways of eating this bread are endless, my favourite topping combinations include:
-Almond butter, frozen banana slices and chopped medjool dates
-Tahini, crushed raspberries, a drizzle of maple syrup
-Hummus, avocado, pomegranate seeds and lemon juice
-Avocado, minced red onion, chopped tomatoes, pumpkin seeds and lemon juice
