Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah):

Quinoa cooks like a grain, but is actually a seed and is a good source of vegetable protein. It contains high levels of minerals and is rich in vitamins and can be used instead of rice or pastas.

Quinoa is easy and quick food to prepare. It has a protein content of between 12-18% and unusually for the vegetable world has a complete set of essential amino acids. It is high in both magnesium and iron and is easy to digest and gluten free, with a good amount of fibre. Because of its food value it is being considered by NASA for its long-duration manned spaceflights.

For thousands of years, quinoa used to be the staple food of the Incas. It is very versatile and can be used in both savoury and sweet dishes. The easiest way to cook it is bring two cups of water to a boil with one cup of quinoa, covering at a low simmer and cooking for 14–18 minutes. It is served instead of rice, pasta or potatoes and the leftovers could be used for breakfast as a breakfast mix with nuts, seed and berries.

Quinoa can also be sprouted like alfalfa or mung beans. Sprouting increases the vitamin and mineral content and this means that it can be used raw in salads as you would other sprout. Alternatively, a mix of different sprouts would make a good addition to any raw dish.

Agar, also known as agar agar and kanten in Japan, is a red seaweed, where the flakes or powder are produced by cooking and pressing the sea vegetables and then freeze drying.

Agar is tasteless and is not eaten on its own but used as a gelling agent.  It is different from gelatine, the traditional gelling agent, in two ways.  One is that it is not an animal product but a vegetable and two that it sets at room temperature.

Agar is rich in fibre and is a good source of vitamins E, K and B5, folate, zinc, copper, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and manganese.  It is very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium.

You can substitute powdered agar into any recipe which called for unflavoured gelatine and you just use the same amount.  If you can’t get agar powder which is easier to use as it dissolves more easily, then one teaspoon of agar powder equals one tablespoon of agar flakes.

Agar has zero calories and using it as a weight loss fad has become popular in some parts of the world.  It is known as the Kanten Diet and seems to be working because of the high fibre (approx 80%) content which is helping people to feel more full and has a mild laxative effect.

Agar is also used in the scientific world as a culture medium to grow microbiological speciments.

It is thought that millet was the first cereal to be used domestically and has been used in India and Africa as a staple food for thousands of years. In the UK, millet is most associated as a food for birds especially budgerigars!

Millet is a versatile food and can be used on its own instead of rice and also in soups, porridge and ground to a flour to make bread, cakes and muffins. It can also be sprouted to use in salads.

Millet seeds are encased in an indigestible hull which has to be removed before we can eat it. The millet seeds are like tiny yellow beads and have a sweetish nutty taste when cooked.

Although we tend to think of millet as a grain it is in fact a seed. And being a seed rather than a grain, it contains a fair amount of protein (about 15%).

Nutritionally, millet is rich in the B vitamins especially B3 and B6 and also the minerals magnesium, zinc, calcium and iron.

As millet is gluten-free it is an excellent grain for those people with Coeliac’s disease and for anybody with a wheat intolerance as it is not related to the wheat family.