Quinoa

Quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") has been grown for thousands of years as a grain crop. Its seeds can be cooked and eaten like bulgar or dried and ground into flour. Leaves of young plants are also edible - and tasty! Make sure to rinse the bitter coating off the harvested seeds prior to cooking, eating, storage, or for use as wild bird seed. Just rinse under cold water as you would rice, but for 2 to 3 minutes.
Uncooked quinoa resembles bulgar. Each grain has a fine ring around it. This is the stem that attaches the seed to the plant. When it's cooked, the stem straightens out so that each grain appears to have a little tail. This fine filament gives quinoa a bit of a crunchy texture, and it contains the majority of the grain's protein.