Quinoa Banana Bread
Banana bread is my favorite quick bread to make, and if I put chocolate chips in it, it does not last long in the house. I have made many versions of banana bread, but I have never tried using quinoa in it before. For this recipe, I grind up the quinoa in my coffee grinder and use it mixed in with my unbleached flour. Quinoa is considered a "super food" and is related to spinach. It is high in protein, fiber, iron and calcium. It is not a grain, but is treated like one in most recipes. I have used it in place of rice in many recipes and in this one I use it like flour. It does not have a noticeable taste if you keep it at about a third of the amount of flour used. In this case, I used one cup of flour to a 1/2 cup of quinoa. I actually measured out a 1/4 cup dry quinoa and as it grinds up, it fluffs to about a 1/2 cup.
This bread turns out to be a nice, hearty loaf of banana bread, and yet it is still very moist. I love banana bread fresh out of the oven, but I do have to say this loaf is better if you let it sit for 24 hours. It is much less crumbly and does not fall apart like it does the first day. If you try making this version of banana bread, please let me know what you think of it. Quinoa is so healthy for you that I think anywhere that you can fit it into your diet, that is a great thing. You will not even notice it in this and I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!
Quinoa banana bread
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 3-4 ripe bananas
- 1/2 Cup butter
- 1/2 Cup white sugar
- 1/2 Cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1/4 Cup ground quinoa, will fluff to about a 1/2 cup
- 1 Cup all purpose flour, I use unbleached flour
- 1/4 Cup chocolate chips, for decoration on top of the bread
Making quinoa banana bread
- Measure out 1/4 Cup dry quinoa. Grind it up until it is very fine in texture, this will become a half cup for the recipe. I use a coffee grinder to grind up my quinoa to use in recipes if I am not using cooked quinoa. Set ground quinoa aside and add in with the flour later.
- Use very ripe bananas and mash 3 or 4 of them in a large bowl.
- Melt 1/2 Cup butter (1 stick). Add butter to the mashed bananas and mix well.
- In a separate dish, beat the egg with a fork or a wisk until it is an even consistency. Pour the beaten egg into the banana mixture. Add the sugars and the Vanilla into the batter.
- Add the tsp cinnamon - I only use Penzy's Vietnamese Cinnamon, I think it is the best!
- Add the baking soda and a pinch of salt.
- Finally, mix in the flour and ground quinoa.
- Bake at 350° for about 55 minutes. I begin checking my quick breads at 45 minutes, a toothpick should come out clean (or mostly clean) in the center and the bread will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan when it is done.
