Quinoa has crunchy bits!

weird. Sounds like you might be undercooking it?? I always rinse it at least once even if it says prewashed. Give it another try - its SOOOO yummy and a great alternative!

I'm surprised no one else has experienced this. I'm pretty sure its not an undercooking issue because the bits look like little pieces of glass. They don't at all look like quinoa. I will try again, rinsing before. Hopefully its better this time!

I have the same problem. It is also why I just CANNOT like quinoa. Everytime I eat it, crunch! And I agree, it's just like biting on a piece of sand.

try a different brand?

I eat a lot of quinoa and have tried several brands and have never experienced the "sand" bits issue. Might just be that particular batch? Maybe?

I have also eaten a ton of quinoa in my life, many different brands, and have never had it crunch. I always rinse my quinoa before cooking because of the saponin (as should you, if you don't know why Google "quinoa rinse saponin"), so if there were any grit, this would have washed it away.

i always rinse it, it also takes away the bitter edge you can get some times

I, too have experienced the bits of glass. Once I made a nice quinoa salad to share with co-workers and was mortified to have one of them show me the piece of glass he found in a mouthful. Same thing happened when I made some for my family - my grouchiest brother bit into it this time.

I used to buy mine at an Amish bulk food store, but have given up on quinoa because of the glass. A friend told me his wife bought some pre-packaged at the grocery and they found the same thing. I am an obsessive, detail sort of person, so I have actually dumped out bags of the quinoa 1/4 cup at a time into a baking pan and sorted through looking for the glass. It's there, and not the result of improper cooking or not rinsing thoroughly enough.

So all of you who have never had this problem, perhaps you can tell the rest of us what brand you buy so we can get our own glass-free quinoa?

sand, grit, and tiny rocks are common in quinoa and has nothing to do with rinsing or not rinsing. It's part of the 'harvest' process. Removing the sand bits is labor intensive.

I have had a similar issue with quinoa which I hadn't encountered before until a recent purchase of a 25lb bag of white quinoa from a big supplier. It wasnt until I got close to almost eating half of the bag when I found that I was biting into crunchy bits of what I would describe as glass beads. I emailed the company and told them of the issue. They replied reassuring me that what I had found in their product was not glass but rather quartz which is found next to where the royal quinoa is grown. The machinery in which detects the quarts must not have picked it up and they issued me a refund.
I still eat quinoa quite often but now I'm just abit more cautious when chewing.

i get my quinoa from costco and i've never had issues with it. it's already pre washed so i don't feel the need to do that. other brands i've had i've really never come across this sort of problem because i've rinsed it really well as it never stated it was pre washed. i cook mine on the stove top for 20 minutes with a ratio of 1 cup quinoa to two cups broth/water.i grate a carrot in mine and add a 1/4 tsp of cardamom and use low sodium chicken broth. super yum imho. our family really likes it. i hope you can find a solution!