Quinoa Banana Pecan Quick Bread

I'm teaching a quinoa cooking class this Sunday, and I wanted to try out a recipe I saw recently that sounded intriguing. The original calls for using sprouted quinoa, and being the slightly lazy cook that I am, I decided to try it with raw quinoa just to see if that shortcut would work out.  My verdict? It's tasty, but a little weird...
This bread is dense, sweet,and filling, with a flavor that reminds me of a nourishing bowl of sweetened oatmeal. Using the uncooked quinoa gives the bread a slightly crunchy and seedy texture. I think it would be really good topped with a little blackberry jam and/or some dried cranberries and lemon zest thrown into the batter, but it's also pretty good on its own. Overall, this is a really nice substitute for a less healthy pastry or dessert, but trust me, you will feel like a total hippy when you're eating it.

Quinoa Banana Pecan Quick Bread
 recipe by Brandi Evans

1½ cups whole-wheat pastry flour

1 cup quinoa (sprouted or not)

½ cup sprouted (or nonsprouted) oats

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup chopped pecans

2 ripe medium-sized bananas, mashed

1 cup buttermilk

¾ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons oil or melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Stir together the flour, quinoa, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pecans in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix the mashed bananas with the buttermilk, brown sugar, vanilla, and oil or butter.

Add banana mixture into the flour mixture, and fold together until the batter is just combined.

Pour batter into a greased 9 × 5 loaf pan (or use a 10inch springform cake pan like I did) and bake until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the loaf (mine took 35 minutes and probably should have stayed in for 5 more minutes). Cool for a few minutes for easier slicing.