Quinoa calories and protein, cooked
Cooked quinoa is 120 calories per 100 g with 4.4 g of protein. A US cup is 185 g — about 222 calories. It is sold as a health food and priced like one; the numbers say it is a grain with somewhat more protein than the alternatives.
Per 100 g, cooked
| Serving | Weight | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 185 g | 222 | 8.1 g | 39.4 g | 3.6 g |
Cooked.
Against white rice, which is the comparison being made
| Per 100 g | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quinoa, cooked | 120 | 4.4 g | 21.3 g | 1.9 g |
| White rice, cooked | 130 | 2.7 g | 28.2 g | 0.3 g |
Quinoa carries 4.4 g of protein per 100 g against 2.7 — 63% more — for 120 calories against 130. So it is modestly better on both counts, and modestly is the honest word. Over a 200 g serving the protein difference is 3.4 g, about half an egg.
The "complete protein" claim you will see everywhere is true — quinoa contains all nine essential amino acids — and matters far less than it sounds, because anyone eating a varied diet assembles complete protein across the day without thinking about it. It is a real property of the grain and a weak reason to buy it.
Cooked, always
Every figure here is cooked. Dry quinoa roughly triples, like rice and oats, so the same 2.8×-ish trap applies: weigh it dry if you can, and if you cooked a batch, work out your share of the dry weight.
Why to actually eat it
Not the protein margin. It cooks in fifteen minutes, it does not go gluey, it holds dressing without collapsing, and it is pleasant cold the next day — which makes it a better base for batch-cooked lunches than rice is. That is a real reason. "Superfood" is not.
Source: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy release 2018-04. Figures are per 100 g as published; serving weights are USDA’s own. Records used: Quinoa, cooked (FDC 168917), Rice, white, long-grain, regular, cooked, unenriched, with salt (FDC 168935).
Common questions
A US cup of cooked quinoa is 185 g, about 222 calories, with roughly 8.1 g of protein.
Modestly. Cooked quinoa is 4.4 g of protein per 100 g against 2.7 g for white rice, at 120 calories against 130. Over a normal serving the protein difference is about half an egg.
Yes, it contains all nine essential amino acids. It matters less than it sounds — a varied diet assembles complete protein across the day regardless.
Dry if you can. It roughly triples when cooked, so cooked weight depends on how much water it absorbed.
Compare it with
| Food | Per 100 g | Protein | The page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bread | 266 kcal | 8.9 g | Slice weight is the only variable that matters |
| Potato | 93 kcal | 2.5 g | Identical to sweet potato on calories |
| Sweet potato | 90 kcal | 2.0 g | By size, and what it actually beats potato on |
All twenty-four are on the food macros index.
Log it without doing this arithmetic
Scan the barcode or weigh it in grams and EatSleepRep does the conversion. The scanner is free forever, there are no ads, and every entry exports as CSV whenever you want it.