Quinoa Bread - Gluten Free, Protein Rich.

Go and grab a bag of white quinoa and a bag of chia seeds.Soak them overnight as per this recipe. Make recipe. Eat bread.Taste-buds will throw a party in your mouth. Resolve to eat Quinoa Bread for breakfast every day until forever more. And lunch. And sometimes dinner too.

Heavenly goodness!

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We holidayed in Byron Bay recently where my husband Cam discovered a taste sensation at The Top Shop on Massinger St.  The taste sensation was quinoa bread with banana, tahini and honey (and it was bloody amazing)Just this week, I also discovered that Combi in Ormond Road, Elwood were also serving a sweet sprouted quinoa loaf with banana and tahini and it was equally delicious.Something is brewing and it tastes darn fine!BUT, I can't go out for breakfast every single day and what happens if I need this bread for dinner at night when these cafe's are closed?I guess I have to resort to making my own. Sigh. ;) HA! Kidding. I LOVE new recipes!After scouring the web for recipe bases to start from, I found the best base recipe was from Teresa Cutter The Healthy Chef, you can find the original recipe at thehealthychef.com, so I have adapted this recipe from Teresa's and added some extra flavour flav. Because flavour.The recipe is dairy-free, egg-free and gluten-free. Chia seeds bind the quinoa together and this bread recipe base would form an excellent sweet or savoury bread.   As a side note, you will need to start this bread the day before as the chia seeds and quinoa need to be soaked. 

Quinoa Bread

Preheat oven to 160CGrease and line a loaf pan/tin. (26cm long)Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups of quinoa, soaked overnight or for 8+ hours in a bowl of water

• 1/4 cup of chia seeds soaked overnight in 1/2 cup water to form a paste

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 tsp bi carbonate of soda

• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or the juice of half a lemon)

• 1/2 cup water

Optional - I add these extra ingredients for a little spice and sweetness - leave out for a plain or savoury loaf

• 1/2 banana

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp nutmeg, ground

Method

• Rinse quinoa after soaking overnight

• In a blender or food processor (I use a Vitamix), blend all ingredients until it's smooth but not completely 'smoothie-like'. This only takes 30 secs in a high powered blender. You want there to still be a few whole pieces of quinoa in there!

• Spoon into a loaf tin and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes. I recommend covering the top with foil if it gets too brown during baking.

• remove the loaf tin and leave to sit for 30 minutes before turning out and allowing to cool.

• Keep in the fridge. Best served toasted or grilled until it browns around the edges.My favourite topping? I top with tahini, banana, honey, seeds and fresh mint.

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Quinoa Bread with banana and tahini. Pin me!