Evaluation of extruded quinoa flour on dough rheology and white salted noodles quality

Abstract White salted noodles are popular staples in Asia, but the ones with limited nutrient composition and high glycemic value still present significant concerns. This study investigated the potential of incorporating extruded quinoa flour (EQF) into wheat flour to enhance nutrient quality and reduce the starch digestibility of composite noodles. Moreover, the effect of EQF addition on the rheological properties of wheat dough and the cooking properties of composite noodles was also studied. The results showed that increasing the proportion of EQF in the composite flour led to a decrease in pasting viscosities and an increase in pasting temperatures, indicating that EQF inhibits starch gelatinization and retrogradation. The incorporation of EQF increased water absorption and softening degree while decreasing dough development time and viscoelasticity. The cooked noodles exhibited a significant reduction in water absorption, hardness, chewiness, and springiness, while an increase in cooking loss following EQF addition. Notably, noodles supplemented with EQF exhibited reduced overall starch digestibility with an increased digestion rate. Collectively, our results showed that substituting 10–20% EQF for wheat flour in noodles effectively lowered total starch digestibility and avoided high cooking loss. This study will have implications for the industrial application of quinoa as a staple food.