Catherine Gill - The Complete Quinoa Cookbook: Over 100 Recipes - Perfect for Vegan & Plant-Based Diets

Y OU SAY YOUVE never heard of quinoa? I find that a bit hard to believe, but hey, perhaps you picked up this book not knowing anything about it. Kudos to you, then, for expanding your horizons!

Lets start with the pronunciation of quinoa. Over the years, I have heard many people pronounce it many different ways and have received lots of questions from readers asking, How on earth do I pronounce this word? The official pronunciation ...is KEEN-waa.

I know, right? That one comes as quite the shock to most people. Dont worryI was completely mispronouncing it, too, but Im grateful to now know the correct pronunciation, so that next time I am at a hip vegan restaurant ordering a Buddha bowl and Im asked if I want brown rice or quinoa, I wont sound like a complete and utter square.

But where did quinoa come from? Who discovered it? What region does it originate from? How did people use it back then? We all know that foods and ingredients evolve over time and from place to place; as food is traded and introduced to various countries, it is prepared in brand new ways (how exciting!). So, in my pursuit of becoming a queen of quinoa, I immersed myself in my quinoa researchI just wanted to know everything about it.

Quinoa originated as an Andean plant in Peru and Bolivia, in the surrounding Lake Titicaca area. Originally cultivated by the pre-Columbian civilizations, quinoa was used in more types of breakfast cuisine at first, but was eventually replaced by prepared cereals after the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. It was considered a staple food in the local community at the time prior to the 16th century. Historical evidence exists which hints that the people of America may have begun domestication of quinoa sometime between 3,000 to 5,000 BCE. However, archeological findings have discovered quinoa in tombs found in Tarapaca and other regions in Chile, and various Peruvian regions.

While the discoverer of quinoa (likely a native of the land quinoa was originally sowed on) is unknown, one Spaniard keeps cropping up when talking about quinoas history. Long after the grain-like seeds crops had already been well-cultivated and widely circulated in societal, cultural and economic existence, Pedro de Valdivia made journal notes during his exploration indicating that this crop had been in existence and cultivated by the natives in the Concepcion area. So, while Pedro de Valdivia is not the one who discovered quinoa himself, he appears to be the first person to ever put anything about quinoa in writing.

The next famous publication to mention quinoa was by Garcilaso de la Vega in 1906. Garcilaso de la Vega was the first published mestizo writer of colonial Andean South America and was author of the Royal Commentaries of the Incas. In his book, quinoa is described as the second-most cultivated grain on the earth, next to either rice or millet. This tells us that even with limited food technology available, quinoa was still thought of as a grain instead of a seed. Garcilaso de la Vega also wrote about the shipping, transport and germination process of the seeds, but still ultimately referred to quinoa as a grain.