Trader Joe's Corn, Pea, Bean & Quinoa Crisps

These are odd little chips. They're mostly flat, but with a lot of puffed-out areas. The color is non-uniform--kind of a dirty yellow, with bits of color here and there, including the unexpected green, where the odd pea has been embedded.

I wish I could say that I could taste each of the individual components, but I can't. They're quite bland, with not enough salt, and basically taste like unsalted (almost) corn chips. I had them with some hummus, and with my leftover Creamy Cashew Fiesta Dip. Their flavor was neutral enough to work well with both, and they were large and sturdy enough for scooping.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Curry Cauliflower Quinoa Salad

You can figure out just about everything you need to know here from the name, ingredients, and photos. Nina and I both liked it--lots of flavors, lots of textures, moderately spicy, and overall quite different from anything we've had before. Serving size seems accurate; it fed both of us (as a side) for dinner, with leftover for my lunch the next day.


Will I buy it again? 

No. I eat lots of cauliflower plain, and don't feel a need to gussy it up like this. But if I ran into this at somebody else's house or at a potluck or something, I'd happily have more of it.

Trader Joe's Quinoa Duo With Vegetable Melange

The "duo" in the product name apparently refers to the fact that it contains two varieties of quinoa. The "vegetable melange" is an overstatement; it's just sweet potatoes and zucchini.

I thought this was OK, but nothing great. Zucchini dominated the flavor profile, along with the mild but hard-to-identify spice blend.

I just sat there for a whole minute trying to think of something else to say about this stuff, and failed.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Tricolor Quinoa

Prior to this purchase, I had never bought quinoa before. I would have said that I had never ever eaten it, except as a minor component of some dish or salad at a restaurant--but when I said that to Nina, she told me that she had served it to me before. I believe her, though I still don't really remember it.

Anyway, the point is that quinoa is still basically a new thing to me, so once again I have no mental database against which to compare this particular product. (If you've noticed that I say that a lot, you'll understand what a limited range of food has been my diet most of my life, and what a change it is to have decided to expand and explore.)

That said, I liked it. It was super-easy to prepare perfectly in my rice cooker (add 2 parts water, press the switch, and walk away). It's pretty. It tastes good. It seems that I can use it nearly everywhere I would otherwise use rice. I'm not sure it's better than rice, but it's a nice little change-up.

How it might compare to other quinoa, I'm not qualified to say. If we're lucky, Nina might chime in on that.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes, though I'd like to try some other varieties first, before coming back to this one.

Nina's View

I like quinoa.

I have indeed served it to Bob before, as I generally blend it half-and-half with rice. They have the same cooking times and proportions, and you get something like a nice textured pilaf as a result. It has a nutty flavor and a toothsome little chew to it.

I like plain quinoa. I like tricolor quinoa. I like red quinoa. It's all good. (And good for you.)

Trader Joe's Organic Superfood Pilaf

I made no deliberate attempt at a theme week here, but for the third day in a row, I'm reviewing a product that I fully expected to like, and then didn't.

After I served it for the first time as a side dish in a dinner with Nina, the leftovers just sat in my refrigerator. Every day I looked at the container and considered reheating it with lunch, and every day I decided instead on something else. After about a week, I stopped trying to fool myself into believing I would eat it, and threw it out.

Why? I think it's the balance. Specifically, too much kale. Kale is OK as part of a salad (or soup or casserole or whatever), but here it's just too dominant. And for me, that transforms what should be a pretty good mixture into one that falls just below the threshold of wanting to have it again.

Will I buy it again? 

No. I'll eat it if Nina has it at her place, but I think if I bought it for myself, it would once again just sit in the freezer forever, with me repeatedly picking other things that I like better.

Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice & Quinoa Spaghetti Pasta

We're up to Day 5 of Gluten-Free Week on the blog: 



I thought this looked interesting when I saw it in the store, though not interesting enough that I cooked it up right away. It actually sat in my cupboard for several months before I got around to it.

I didn't think it was great, but it was perfectly acceptable. When eaten with pasta sauce, I was not consciously aware that it was significantly different from ordinary pasta. Maybe a little stickier and gloppier.

Most of the gluten-free substitutes for wheat-based products that I have tried have been pretty bad, such that if I were forced for health reasons to change to them, I would feel severely put upon. Not so with this one. I would deem it only a small diminishment in my enjoyment of spaghetti.

Will I buy it again? 

I doubt it. But if you have a problem with gluten, by all means give it a try.

Nina's View

When Bob told me that this was on the menu, I'm afraid my first reaction was "Oh dear." This was my polite way of saying what the inside of my head was screaming, which was "AW HELL NAWS!!!!!"

To be fair, it wasn't as bad as I expected. If you are truly gluten-sensitive or have celiac disease, I think this is worth trying. For the majority of us lucky enough to have no problem digesting gluten or wheat, there's no reason to inflict this on ourselves. I found the texture and taste pretty leaden. I think you need to pick your sauce for this carefully, as it will definitely clash with some flavors. I have no interest in experimenting to find which ones work best.

Trader Joe's Organic Vegetable Soup With Quinoa & Kale

Did not like. Too peppery, and way, way too full of onions, which, as all sensible people know, are poison to humans.

Will I buy it again? 

No.