These super crunchy, slightly sweet little seeds are flavored with everyone's favorite Fall spice blend, Pumpkin Spice. Sprinkle these over your morning oatmeal, sliced fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese or acai bowl to add texture and flavor.
Pumpkin Spice Crispy Quinoa
Pumpkin Spice Crispy Quinoa
Fiona Kennedy
makes just over 1 cup
1 hours
These super crunchy, slightly sweet little seeds are flavored with everyone's favorite Fall spice blend, Pumpkin Spice. Sprinkle these over your morning oatmeal, sliced fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese or acai bowl to add texture and flavor. I have included instructions for both the air fryer and the oven. The air fryer recipe is a little faster, but it also requires a little more baby sitting, due to the way it cooks.
Ingredients
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 Tbs vegetable or avocado oil
3 Tbs turbinado sugar
½ tsp Hudson Valley salt or any flaky salt
1 tsp Pumpkin Spice
Directions
Place quinoa and 1 ½ cups water in a 2-quart pot and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid, and cook for about 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Remove covered pot from heat and let rest for 10 minutes. Remove lid, fluff quinoa, and transfer to a parchment-lined sheet pan to cool to room temperature. You should have about 3 cups of cooked quinoa.
Heat air fryer to 400F. Place 2 cups of cooled quinoa in a mixing bowl and toss with 2 Tbs oil. Transfer quinoa to a cake pan or a high-sided pan that fits in your air fryer. Place pan in air fryer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring every 2 or 3 minutes.
Reduce air fryer temperature to 380F. Remove quinoa from air fryer and stir in sugar and salt. Cook for 10-15 minutes more, until evenly browned and crispy. You will need to stir frequently as it will start browning very very quickly during the last 5 minutes. Once it is ready, quickly stir in the Pumpkin Spice and dump quinoa out onto a parchment-lined sheet pan and spread out in an even layer. It will continue to crisp as it cools. Store in a sealed container at room temperature.
If making crispy quinoa in oven: Heat oven to 375F. After mixing cooked quinoa with oil, place on a parchment-line sheet pan and spread out in an even thin layer. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and stir in sugar and salt, then spread out in an even layer. Bake 20-30 minutes more, stirring very frequently, especially during the last 10 minutes. The sugar really only starts to caramelize towards the end so frequent stirring is necessary to prevent burning. When evenly browned, remove quinoa from oven and stir in Pumpkin Spice. Let quinoa cool on sheet pan before serving.