Is Quinoa a Seed or a Grain?

This is a question along the same lines of is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Technically speaking, a tomato is a fruit that many refer to as a vegetable. However, answering whether quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a seed or a grain isn’t so easy to answer, and it really depends on who you ask. Botanists, such as Mark Watney, the botanist from the book and movie, The Martian, would emphatically refer to quinoa as a seed. However, most nutritionists refer to quinoa as a grain or, at minimum, as a pseudocereal grain. OK, let’s get into this…

The quinoa that we eat comes from the tall, flowering, South American Chenopodium plant. It is, botanically speaking, the seed of this plant. The earliest records of these seeds being eaten go back over 7,000 years, and the Incans referred to it as the “mother grain,” yet another source of quinoa being known as a grain, but maybe that has to do with the translation from the original Incan language. While it is now grown all over the globe, the majority still comes from Bolivia and Peru.

While there are also over 3,000 varieties of quinoa, we tend to only eat three, red, white and black. All three varieties are highly nutritious which are good sources for manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, folate, copper, iron, zinc, thiamin, riboflavin and vitamin B6. One cup of quinoa contains about 220 calories, 8 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of fat. Quinoa also contains nutritional plant compounds known as flavonoids which are known for their anti-inflammatory qualities. Oh yeah, it’s also gluten free. With all that packed into such a small container, one can see why quinoa has become hugely popular and known as a superfood.

Now that you know a little more about quinoa, let’s back to the question at hand. The Whole Grains Council (who knew such an organization existed) recognizes quinoa as a pseudocereal but classifies it as a whole grain. With all this confusion, I decided to head to the dictionary and only got more confused. And here’s why…a “seed” is defined as grains of ripened ovules of plants used for sowing and a “grain” is defined as a single hard seed. What the hell? They use one term to describe the other.

I also think this confusion stems (see what I did there? A stem is a plant part and we’re talking about plan…oh, never mind) from the fact that, generally speaking, we eat grains and plant seeds. Think of it this way, no one refers to an apple seed as a grain. However, since we eat quinoa and don’t plant it people began referring to it as a grain. What is agreed upon is that quinoa is definitely NOT a cereal grain like rice, wheat, oats, corn, barley, rye, sorghum or millet.  It falls into the previously mentioned pseudocereal category along with amaranth and buckwheat which are not “true” grains but are prepared and eaten in a similar manner to grains.

Couscous is another international food that gets confused as grain or a seed. It is neither. It is actually a pasta made from semolina flour, which is ground from durum wheat, and mixed with water. It is then rolled into little balls of varying sizes. There are three main types of couscous, Moroccan, which has tiny, inconsistently sized balls, Israeli or pearl couscous, which is simply rolled into larger, more consistently sized, balls and Lebanese which is rolled into still larger balls. All are made from durum wheat and, as such, contain gluten. However, couscous is also a great source of selenium, plant protein, fiber and potassium.

So, to sum up the quinoa debate, my official answer to the posed question is, after hours of exhaustive research (well, maybe an hour of research) is that quinoa is a pseudocereal that falls somewhere between a seed and a grain. As for couscous, the evidence is clear, it is a form of pasta and neither a grain nor a seed.  All I do know is that we all should probably be eating more of these superfoods regardless of whether they are a seeds, grains, pseudocereals, pastas or something in between.