As a so called superfood Quinoa is overrated in the sense that when you look at the protein content (what Quinoa is famous for) it looks very high compared to rice as you can see in the table below.
| Food per 100g | Calories | Fat | Carbohydrate | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quinoa uncooked | 368 cal | 6g | 64.2g | 14g |
| Rice uncooked | 365 cal | 6g | 80g | 7g |
When you cook Quinoa it’s volume quadruples. Rice only doubles in weight after being cooked so with this in mind let’s have a look at the nutritional values when both are cooked.
| Per 100g | Calories | Fat | Carbohydrate | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quinoa cooked | 92 cal | 1.5g | 16.5g | 3.5g |
| Rice cooked | 182 cal | 3g | 40g | 3.5g |
As you can see in the table above Quinoa falls far behind rice in it’s cooked form because of all the water it retains during the cooking process. The issue with water weight is that you have to be able to eat the extra volume. People on a diet are really going to like Quinoa but if your goal is to have as many calories possible per day in the least amount of time (who has time to eat 5 times a day for an hour).
Quinoa is also a lot more expensive than rice (rice is about €1,5/kg and Quinoa €12/kg.
The taste of Quinoa is bland, indeed it tastes like absolutely nothing.
I’m not saying you should not eat Quinoa, you can eat it now and again but don’t be fooled by the marketing around this product and don’t make it you staple food.