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    Home » Recipes » Healthy Kitchen

    What is Kañiwa? Introducing a Relative of Quinoa

    Published: May 16, 2017 · Updated: Aug 18, 2021 · This post may contain affiliate links.

    What is kañiwa? Simply put, this relative of quinoa, is similarly a South American superfood grain making a splash in the North American market. Like quinoa, Kañiwa grows in Peru and Bolivia. It’s an excellent source of protein and amino acids, is exceptionally high in iron, and is gluten-free. Dark reddish-brown in color and about half the size of a tiny quinoa seed, it cooks up quickly to resemble a smaller version of red quinoa. Find out lots more information in Kañiwa: A "New" Ancient Superfood.

    One major difference between the two is that kañiwa doesn’t have saponins, the coating that gives quinoa a soapy, slightly bitter flavor if not rinsed properly. A good thing, as I can’t imagine a sieve fine enough for its tiny size.

    Quinoa brought to market has already been rinsed of much of its saponins, as otherwise it would be quite unpalatable (this procedure is done with a strong alkaline solution). But it’s always recommended that quinoa be rinsed well again at home to remove any remaining bitterness. Kañiwa is actually easier to process due to the absence of saponins.

    It’s recommended to toast the grain on a dry skillet or saucepan first, then cover with water in twice its volume. Like quinoa, the water absorbs in 15 to 20 minutes. Truth be told, both times I used it so far I forgot to toast it, and it was just fine (it has a mild, nutty flavor similar to quinoa’s).

    A few simple ways to use kañiwa

    • Add ½ to 1 cup cooked kañiwa to pancake or waffle batter (depending on the size of the batch)
    • Serve it as a sweet breakfast bowl with a maple syrup to taste, chopped nuts, and dried or fresh fruit. Finish with a dusting of cinnamon.
    • A savory breakfast bowl is good too, with a little vegan butter and a sprinkling of nondairy cheese shreds. Sweet or savory, a it keeps you full for hours.
    • Like many a nutritious grain, kañiwa works well in warm pilafs and room-temperature salads.
    • Come fall holiday meals, like its slightly larger cousin, a pilaf makes a nourishing and attractive stuffing for squashes and peppers.

    Nutritionally, kañiwa's profile is remarkably similar to quinoa's. It's a good source of complete protein, and is a good source of a wide range of vitamins and minerals. One advantage it has over quinoa is that it's an even better source of iron.

    How to cook kañiwa

    Kañiwa and quinoa can be used interchangeably, and are cooked in the same proportion to liquid (2 parts liquid to 1 part kañiwa; it cooks in 15 minutes, like quinoa, or just a bit quicker). To that end, please explore our article, How to Cook Quinoa — and Some Great Ways to Use It. You might also enjoy We Love Quinoa, a volume in our Best of VegKitchen affordable e-book series featuring the 30 most popular quinoa recipes on this site, along with many color photographs.

    Quinoa pdf e-book cover - VegKitchen

    Kañiwa is available from online retailers, you can ask your natural foods retailer if they can order some for you.

    For a recipes, see Kañiwa Confetti Salad (shown at top).

    • For lots more features on healthy lifestyle, explore VegKitchen’s Healthy Vegan Kitchen page.
    • Here are more of VegKitchen’s Natural Food Guides.

    *This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through this review, VegKitchen receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

    More Healthy Kitchen

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    • Guide to Tofu for Beginners
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    • Vegan Easter Desserts and Treats

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. suz says

      December 14, 2012 at 3:26 pm

      Thanks for the info, much appreciated!

    2. Cindy Brougham says

      June 04, 2013 at 9:26 am

      I love kaniwa. How long does kaniwa "keep" after cooking and refrigerated?

    3. Cindy Brougham says

      June 04, 2013 at 9:27 am

      How long can I keep kaniwa after cooking and refrigerating it?

    4. Nava says

      June 04, 2013 at 9:28 am

      Cindy, I would say that it keeps in a tightly lidded container for 3 to 4 days. My guess is that it would freeze well, too, in an airtight container, for a couple of months.

    5. Kathy says

      March 28, 2014 at 3:03 pm

      Does kaniwa have to always be cooked? Can it just be soaked and eaten or added to others dishes or ground and used as flour?

      Thank you.

    6. Nava says

      April 06, 2014 at 10:10 pm

      Kathy, sorry for the delayed response. Yours are good questions, but I don't have the answers. If you find out, can you come back and share the information? It would be greatly appreciated.

    7. Theresa Maria Braun says

      April 10, 2014 at 1:25 pm

      Is there a cookbook just on Kaniwa?

    8. Nava says

      April 10, 2014 at 1:27 pm

      Theresa, not that I'm aware of. But you can use kaniwa interchangeably with quinoa in recipes. So you can consult any quinoa cookbook or individual recipes on the web.

    9. martha says

      April 28, 2014 at 4:02 pm

      I found the best way to rinse quinoa was to use one of the gold coffee filters. There is no rim for the grains to get stuck under and the mesh is fine enough that the grains don't slip thorough. Also, it's easy to get almost all the grains out and not wasting any.

    10. Nava says

      April 28, 2014 at 4:06 pm

      That's an excellent suggestion, Martha. Sometimes I get lazy about rinsing quinoa, though I know it needs to be done. Fortunately, Kaniwa doesn't need to be rinsed, and that's good considering how tiny it is.

    11. shashi says

      August 24, 2014 at 4:09 pm

      Can anyone let me know from where to by Kaniwa that is mud free and dirt free at a reasonable price? Please email me? Thank you! [email protected]

    12. Sherisa says

      December 24, 2014 at 11:18 am

      Shashi - I get mine from nuts.com

    13. Plato says

      January 08, 2015 at 5:25 pm

      Kaniwa, amaranth, brown rice, quinoa, wild rice, white rice, bulghar, wheat berries, I use them interchangeably in these salad like recipes of the west...I mean west of america.My love is for my native cuisine, & we do have innumerable local recipes for all these except quinoa, which does ot grow in India because it is not native to India. I believe all the exponential rise in allergies & a lot of other "idiopathic" 7 "auto-immune" diseases with no explanations, are possibly the result of people leaving their local foods for those grown across the globe from them. The doctors & the politicians will not agree. But if any one takes time to look at the time line, the correlation & causation will be quite clear.

    14. Roman says

      January 27, 2015 at 11:00 pm

      @Plato -- Thanks for solving this mystery. I was wondering what the cause of all the allergies and autoimmune disease was and now I know.

    15. Norman Privay says

      May 19, 2015 at 12:34 pm

      @Plato, that is a great point regarding alien foods potentially being linked with allergies and autoimmune disease. It would be interesting to examine this further. Most statisticians, however, would caution against the logic that correlation implies causation. Do you know of some good data sets?

    16. Sharon says

      June 30, 2015 at 2:26 pm

      I live in Atlanta. I found Kaniwa, in bulk, at my local Sprouts Market.

    17. tom Hamilton says

      July 12, 2015 at 11:51 pm

      Sprouts market has it on sale for half off at 2.99

    18. Elena says

      September 25, 2015 at 9:07 pm

      Does anyone know where to get a strainer for kaniwa. The grain is very small and I like to soak my grains. Thank you

    19. Nava says

      October 01, 2015 at 11:55 am

      Elena, sorry for the delayed reply — I don't know specifically of a strainer with holes smaller than in the standard kind, but I wonder if, once you soak them, they'd swell enough not to go through the holes. Otherwise, there's also the idea of lining a regular strainer with a couple of layers of cheesecloth.

    20. jesse says

      January 02, 2016 at 10:40 pm

      .99 a pound at sprouts houston sale

    21. Beverly Johnson says

      January 08, 2016 at 5:21 pm

      $.99/pound @ Sprouts in Tucson too, though it is a special sale of $5.00 off.

    22. Andre Bordes says

      January 09, 2016 at 9:24 pm

      Kaniwa is on sale at sprouts for 99cents the pound

    23. Abigail says

      February 03, 2016 at 12:20 pm

      Yesterday feb 2 , kaniwa price $0.99 cents per pound in Sprouts Mckinney Tx but was at 6.00 regularly

    24. Sharon says

      August 19, 2016 at 4:19 pm

      The best for rinsing would probably be a mesh strainer.But even then it would need to soak an enlarge a bit. Or line with a paper towel which might be easier to disengage the seeds from than cheese. But the article indicates it doesn't need to be rinsed.

    25. Nava says

      August 22, 2016 at 8:31 pm

      Sharon, common wisdom says that kañiwa doesn't need to be rinsed, because unlike quinoa it doesn't have the bitter saponins. Thanks for your input, though, for people who want to give it a rinse in any case.

    26. Rebecca Rhaesa says

      September 24, 2016 at 5:11 pm

      Use a coffee filter if you want to rinse it. Worked well.

    27. Lisa Burris says

      October 22, 2016 at 8:23 pm

      Sprouts has it on sale for 99 cents a pound right now.

    28. Bonnie Yachimec says

      January 08, 2017 at 4:36 pm

      I got some kañiwa from the bulk food store up here and it CAN be ground for flour according to the fact sheet provided with it. It also DOES NOT have to be rinsed.

    29. Sistah Modupe says

      February 21, 2017 at 3:42 pm

      Sprouts no longer carrying it in bulk in Los Angeles area.

    30. Monique Benun says

      March 05, 2017 at 4:19 pm

      Thank you for the comprehensive info.
      I have two packages of Kaniwa in my house, avoiding cooking because I didn't want to go through the nightmare of rinsing. So much was wasted the first time I made it!
      My vegan son will be happily surprised when I serve the unrinsed kaniwa.

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