Question about quinoa
 

Has anyone had problems with it affecting their sugars? I'm looking for a substitute for the jasmine rice I used to eat with stir fry. It has a glycemic load of 19

Hi Lilmissprepper. I love quinoa. It is one of the grains they recommend for diabetics. My problem is, I am not satisfied with 1 serving, which is 1/4 cup. I have not been eating it since I began eating low carb. I think it would be a good substitute for jasmine rice because of the protein content. The best thing to do would be to eat it and then test your blood sugar at 1, 2 and 3 hours to see what effect it has. Different carbs effect each of us differently. In the past, I have noticed that carbs don't effect me as bad if I eat them with a protein and some fat.

1/4 cup cooked or raw? Cooked would be like 1 mouthful lol

Dry. It swells up a lot. The brand I have is Ancient Harvest Traditional, and I think I got it at Walmart. It says, 172 cals, 2.6gm fat, 1 mg sodium, 31gm carb, 3gm fiber and 6 gm protein.

That's a lot of carbs. I usually make it with chicken broth for flavor, and I use a little bit more liquid than it calls for because I don't like it to be crunchy. It's a personal choice. I also let it cook longer than it says....checking closely, until the liquid is absorbed. I like to mix vegetables in it. It fills you up and would probably make you eat less.

EDIT: I accidentally typed Cooked instead of Dry. LOL Wouldn't even be worth making it!

Cauliflower fried rice or even just plain cauliflower rice are good subs. I keep baggies of riced cauliflower in my freezer so I don't have to deal with the mess every time I want some.

OH! I totally forgot about cauliflower rice! I used to make it when I was on Atkins before!

That's not a bad amount for dry.
I made a salad with tomatoes, olives, cukes, little bit of onion and feta. I cooked 1 cup of dry and added that in. The dressing was 2 TBS lemon juice, 1 minced clove of garlic, 1 TBS red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and 1/4 Cup of olive olive. I've had 2 sides out of it so far and I think there's like 5 more servings in the bowl lol

That salad sounds good.

I grated some cauliflower and froze it but never got around to eating it. DH won't eat any of the substitute foods. He wants the real thing. Never had a weight problem.

You can freeze it after you grate it? Wouldn't it get too soft to make the 'rice'??

I don't know, because I never tried making the rice once I froze it. LOL Someone on this forum told me I could do that when I said that a head of cauliflower makes too much "rice" for one person.

Well, you can always make mashed if it does lol

I grate it and freeze it raw, then I can just thaw it in the microwave and top with whatever the rest of my meal is (stir fry, dal, curry, etc)

Freezing Raw Shredded Cauliflower

Thanks, Munchy. I think that's where I read about freezing it. I like that forum. I just don't make the cauli rice often because DH wouldn't eat it.

My fiance loves zucchini noodles, but can't eat cauliflower because of his stomach issues. That's why I bag them up in small baggies - I can throw some rice in the rice cooker and pull out a small bag of cauli-rice for myself. :p

I cooked some zucchini noodles with pesto. Really good. Next time I make chicken alfredo I am going to use zucchini noodles with it.

I'm not diabetic, so I don't have experience with adjusting for blood sugar changes, and I'm not fully informed on which grains are best... but:

I find that brown rice is WAY more filling than white rice, so you would probably be able to use a lot less of it for the same effect? I think you can get brown jasmine rice, too.

I like quinoa and you can make it in the rice cooker, but I haven't tried doing much with it. It does make a good tabouli. And it's pretty good on its own.

I do that - I also add in mushrooms, peppers, onion, and garlic and season with a bit of adobo, then add in neufchatel cheese and a splash of skim milk. It becomes a decadent cheesy bowl of noodles for around 200 calories.

I keep looking at this kung pao chicken zoodle recipe. Maybe I'll make it this weekend.

faiora, I have been using brown rice lately for things like stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage rolls. Even my very picky husband has been eating it. I don't know if he would eat it plain as a side dish though. It's ok for him mixed into a recipe. I use to be partial to white rice, but now that I've tried the brown I like the taste and the bit of crunchiness.

Munchy, I will eat anything that has mushrooms, peppers, onion and garlic!