Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend

This is an unusual admixture of things from different categories of foodstuffs that aren't normally found together. Oddly, only the last ingredient--red quinoa--can reasonably be classified as a "grain," despite the product name. Couscous and orzo are simply forms of pasta (though made from wheat, of course), and baby garbanzo beans are not grains, either.

I screwed up the cooking the first time, leaving it underdone. But for the second half of the bag, I followed the package directions meticulously, and it came out as I think is intended. The pasta components were al dente. However, this still left the garbanzos a little tough. Maybe perfect cooking of everything at once is possible with some other technique, but I suspect that getting the beans cooked right would mean mushy couscous and orzo.

In any event, the most favorable quality of the cooked product is visual appeal; it makes for a very pretty plate. But the taste is nothing special--just ordinary pasta, really.


Will I buy it again? 

Probably not. If on some occasion I want visually appealing pasta, I'd be more likely to go for TJ's Organic Pasta--Vegetable Radiatore, or Trofie Colore.

Trader Joe's Organic Tricolor Quinoa

Prior to this purchase, I had never bought quinoa before. I would have said that I had never ever eaten it, except as a minor component of some dish or salad at a restaurant--but when I said that to Nina, she told me that she had served it to me before. I believe her, though I still don't really remember it.

Anyway, the point is that quinoa is still basically a new thing to me, so once again I have no mental database against which to compare this particular product. (If you've noticed that I say that a lot, you'll understand what a limited range of food has been my diet most of my life, and what a change it is to have decided to expand and explore.)

That said, I liked it. It was super-easy to prepare perfectly in my rice cooker (add 2 parts water, press the switch, and walk away). It's pretty. It tastes good. It seems that I can use it nearly everywhere I would otherwise use rice. I'm not sure it's better than rice, but it's a nice little change-up.

How it might compare to other quinoa, I'm not qualified to say. If we're lucky, Nina might chime in on that.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes, though I'd like to try some other varieties first, before coming back to this one.

Nina's View

I like quinoa.

I have indeed served it to Bob before, as I generally blend it half-and-half with rice. They have the same cooking times and proportions, and you get something like a nice textured pilaf as a result. It has a nutty flavor and a toothsome little chew to it.

I like plain quinoa. I like tricolor quinoa. I like red quinoa. It's all good. (And good for you.)