While Quinoa is touted as a super grain, we eat it at our house because it is delicious and packed with protein. But, like most of the things we eat we are always looking for ways to diversify the way we cook it. One of our favourite Quinoa recipes is Quinoa Salad with Chili Lime Dressing but these muffins are also in the running! These quinoa muffins are slightly sweet but also savoury making them an excellent addition to lunch or afternoon snack. Packed with the goodness of quinoa and the tartness of cranberry they have a complex flavour.
Quinoa Recipes: Quinoa and Cranberry Muffins
Author: Modified from Martha Stewart
Serves: 12
A slightly sweet, slightly savoury muffin with the pop of quinoa.
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
- ¼ vegetable oil
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ¾ cup fresh cranberries (or hydrated dried cranberries)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Bring 1 cup water and quinoa to boil
- Reduce to simmer until water has been absorbed by the quinoa (10-12 mins)
- Brush muffin tin with vegetable oil then lightly dust with flour.
- Mix together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Add 2 cups of cooked quinoa and cranberries.
- In a separate bowl whisk together oil, milk, egg and vanilla and add to flour mixture.
- Pour mixture evenly across 12 muffins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Recipe modified from Martha Stewart’s Quinoa Muffins. 
Quinoa Cranberry Muffins
- 1 cup Organic Quinoa
, rinsed
- ¼ vegetable oil
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ¾ cup fresh cranberries (or hydrated dried cranberries)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Bring 1 cup water and quinoa to boil
- Reduce to simmer until water has been absorbed by the quinoa (10-12 mins)
- Brush muffin tin with vegetable oil then lightly dust with flour.
- Mix together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Add 2 cups of cooked quinoa and cranberries.
- In a separate bowl whisk together oil, milk, egg and vanilla and add to flour mixture.
- Pour mixture evenly across 12 muffins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Looking for other great Quinoa Recipes try Kale, Quinoa and Cranberry Salad and check out this cookbook Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood
My only issue with this recipe is that there was very little liquid. I had to add half a cup of liquid, because the batter didn’t come together. I added orange juice
Great suggestion! I didn’t have trouble with the liquid but the addition of orange juice would be delicious!
For me too, this was a very dry “batter.” I mixed for a long time to get all the dry ingredients to be a bit moist and even then it was still very crumbly. For lack of any other liquid in the house, I added apple sauce and that helped things to stick together. But I certainly wasn’t “pouring” the mixture in the muffin tin. However, the end result was not too dry. Pretty yummy, actually. :) Thank you for sharing this recipe; it’s a fun way to use quinoa.
If you look at the Martha Stewart recipe this is adapted from, you will find the 3/4 cup of milk that is missing here.
My apologies – Thank you for catching that error! I have changed it in the post.
This may be obvious but I want to make sure before I bake! Is the 1/4 vegetable oil in cups or tsp/TBS?? Thank you!!!
Thank you for the ‘heads up’! I corrected the recipe now – it should be 1/4 cup vegetable oil. My apologies for not including that originally.
i loved these and I didn’t have any trouble with the amount of liquid!
The 1 cup Quinoa rinsed….does that mean in the raw uncooked state or, does it mean once cooked?
The quinoa is raw so rinsed raw – it cooks while baking. Thanks for asking!
I have cooked quinoa which I am hoping to use up by baking this recipe. How much does one cup of uncooked quinoa equate to when cooked? Aprox? Thanks!!
I substituted 1/2 the flour with flax. Use blueberries (the second time around). And found my children liked the consistency better with precooked quinoa rather than raw.
Great recipe! It is now a staple in our home :)
Those are fantastic ideas! My kids call the muffins “popping muffins” because of the Quinoa. I will try it precooked next time I make it. Thanks!
Wonderful Recipe. Thx. Printing this one out and giving it a try tomorrow. Keep you posted ! (:
I am glad that I made these after everyone tried them first. So good!
I think I’m going to try these
mmmmm…..I love both quinoa and cranberries…I am in love!
Great looking salad for sure!
I love adding quinoa to my baking!
That sounds like a great recicipe, I love quina! Thanks for sharing!