Enjoy a warm and cozy breakfast with this protein-rich Instant Pot® Apple Cinnamon Quinoa Porridge. This easy recipe takes about thirty minutes to prepare from start to finish.

You Gotta Love the Instant Pot®

My Instant Pot® is my favorite kitchen appliance. It saves space as an all-in-one steamer, rice cooker, pressure cooker, slow cooker and it cooks grains beautifully in less time!

You could make this recipe on the stove-top, but you would likely need to adjust cooking time and the amount of milk. I haven't tried it, so I'm not exactly sure what is required to achieve the same creamy consistency.

Why Quinoa?

You might be more accustomed to enjoying quinoa for lunch or dinner. I'm right there with you. Some of my favorite quinoa recipes include:

• Quick Mushroom Quinoa Soup
• Spicy Lentil Quinoa Burgers
• 3 Bean Quinoa Salad
• Veggie Quinoa Sushi Rolls
• Warm Teriyaki Quinoa Salad

However, this pseudo-grain is also a great way to start the day because it's so rich in protein. Unlike most plant foods, Quinoa is a "complete protein." It contains all nine of the essential amino acids your body needs. According to Greatist.com, twenty different amino acids can form a protein, but nine we have to eat because we can't make them. To be considered "complete," a protein must contain all nine of these essential amino acids in relatively equal amounts.

Most nutritionists agree you don't need to eat foods (or combinations of foods) that offer complete proteins at each meal. Instead, you should strive to eat a variety of foods throughout the day to ensure you get everything you need. But it certainly doesn't hurt to start the day with a complete protein!

Other Grains

Other grains work well in this recipe. To keep things interesting, I rotate my breakfast cereals:

• oatmeal
• buckwheat
• quinoa
• millet

I typically soak my oats or cook them in the microwave. But I make variations of this recipe with buckwheat and millet. For example, I sweeten my Instant Pot® Buckwheat Porridge with bananas. However, you could easily swap the banana for Medjool dates. One banana equals four Medjool dates and vice versa. Or you could swap the buckwheat for millet. You get the idea.

How To Reheat

This recipe makes approximately four servings. If you're lucky like me, and your family prefers a different sort of breakfast, you've got four mornings covered. I store leftovers in the fridge and then reheat individual servings. Just spoon the porridge into a bowl. It will be pretty stiff instead of porridge-like, but don't be alarmed. Cover the bowl with a small plate and heat in the microwave on high for about 1.5 minutes. Then add plant-milk and mash/stir to reach the desired consistency.

Instant Pot® Apple Cinnamon Quinoa Porridge

Who doesn't love the sweet taste of cooked apples and cinnamon? Enjoying this delicious recipe is almost like eating apple pie for breakfast, without the guilt! Feel free to adjust ingredients to suit your taste. Tinker with it and make it your own.

 Note: I do not include nutrition information with my recipes because I subscribe to the theories presented in the book Whole and believe we should focus on eating a variety of whole foods instead of counting calories or keeping track of individual nutrients.

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