Tablespoons of uncooked quinoa to grams runs on one number, 10.625 grams per tablespoon. It is a measured property of this ingredient rather than a defined conversion, which is why a generic volume-to-weight tool cannot give you it.
Water is the yardstick: 1 mL of it weighs 1 g. Uncooked quinoa comes in at 0.71855 g per mL, or 71.85% of water, which is why a cup of it is 170 g rather than 236.6 g. Volume and weight only line up for water, and only in metric.
A level tablespoon of uncooked quinoa is 10.62 g, which puts a teaspoon at 3.542 g and a tablespoon and a half — the quantity recipes are fondest of — at 15.94 g. Levelling twice is where the error comes from, so the scale is the faster instrument once the quantity passes a couple of spoons.
Grams are the unit this conversion is really for. A domestic scale resolves to a gram, which is 0.588% of a cup of uncooked quinoa, so weighing gets an accuracy no measuring cup can reach. A 500 g pack of it is 2.941 cups, and a 1 kg pack 5.882.
The condition this weight assumes: Dry and rinsed. The seeds are small and round, so they pack closely.
The formula
tablespoons- The amount of uncooked quinoa you are converting, in tablespoons
10.625- Grams per tablespoon for uncooked quinoa, from its density of 0.71855 g/mL
grams- The equivalent quantity in grams
How it works, step by step
- Enter the quantity in tablespoons.
- It is multiplied by 10.625, the grams-per-tablespoon figure for uncooked quinoa.
- The result appears in grams, with a second reading in oz beneath it.
- Use the measure table if you want a standard recipe quantity rather than a number you type in.
Worked examples
2 tbsp of uncooked quinoa in grams
Take 2 tbsp of uncooked quinoa: 2 × 10.625 gives 21.25 grams. Doubling the batch takes it to 42.5 grams, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
4 tbsp of uncooked quinoa in grams
Take 4 tbsp of uncooked quinoa: 4 × 10.625 gives 42.5 grams. Doubling the batch takes it to 85 grams, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
12 tbsp of uncooked quinoa in grams
A recipe calling for 12 tbsp of uncooked quinoa needs 127.5 grams on the scale. The arithmetic is 12 × 10.625 = 127.5, and halving the recipe halves the weight to 63.75 grams.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many grams are in 1 tbsp of uncooked quinoa?
One tablespoon of uncooked quinoa is 10.625 grams. Half that quantity is 5.3125 grams and double it is 21.25 grams, so the figure scales straight up and down — there is no offset in this conversion, only the factor.
Why is a cup of uncooked quinoa not 236 g like water?
Because weight per cup depends on what is in the cup. Uncooked quinoa has a density of 0.71855 g per mL where water has 1.00, so a cup of it weighs 170 g rather than 236.6 g. That is a difference of 66.6 g per cup, and it is the reason a single volume-to-weight factor cannot be applied to every ingredient.
Does how I measure it change the weight?
Yes, and by more than most people expect. Handling changes the weight of a cup of uncooked quinoa by roughly 20% — about 17 g either side of 170 g — because dry and rinsed. Weighing removes the question entirely.
Is a fluid ounce of uncooked quinoa the same as an ounce?
No. A fluid ounce is a volume — one eighth of a US cup, 29.57 mL — and an ounce is a weight. One fluid ounce of uncooked quinoa weighs 0.7496 oz, so the two readings differ by 25%. They coincide only for something with the density of water, and then only roughly.
Is this a US cup or a metric cup?
US customary: 236.59 mL, which is the cup every US recipe means. A metric cup is 250 mL, so the same cup of uncooked quinoa would weigh 179.64 g instead of 170 g — 9.64 g more, or 5.67%. Australian and some European recipes use the metric cup, and the difference is large enough to matter in baking.
Do I need a scale for this, or will measuring cups do?
A scale, if the result matters. Volume measuring carries a spread of about 20% for uncooked quinoa — roughly 34 g on a 170 g cup — while a domestic scale is accurate to a gram or two. For anything where the ratio of ingredients drives the outcome, bread and pastry above all, weigh it.
How many tablespoons of uncooked quinoa is 500 g?
500 g of uncooked quinoa is 47.059 tablespoons — 0.0941176 tablespoons to one gram, so 500 × 0.0941176 = 47.059. Going that way is a division by 10.625, or a multiplication by 0.0941176 if you prefer.
Uncooked quinoa in tablespoons and grams
| Tablespoons | Grams | Unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 tbsp | 5.3125 g | 5.3125 |
| 1 tbsp | 10.625 g | 10.625 |
| 2 tbsp | 21.25 g | 21.25 |
| 3 tbsp | 31.875 g | 31.875 |
| 4 tbsp | 42.5 g | 42.5 |
| 6 tbsp | 63.75 g | 63.75 |
| 8 tbsp | 85 g | 85 |
| 12 tbsp | 127.5 g | 127.5 |
| 16 tbsp | 170 g | 170 |
Based on 170 g per cup of uncooked quinoa. One tablespoon of uncooked quinoa is 10.625 grams.
| Measure | Grams | Ounces | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 170 g | 6 oz | 236.6 mL |
| 1 tbsp | 10.62 g | 0.375 oz | 14.79 mL |
| 2 tsp | 7.083 g | 0.25 oz | 9.858 mL |
| 1 tsp | 3.542 g | 0.125 oz | 4.929 mL |
| 3/4 tsp | 2.656 g | 0.0937 oz | 3.697 mL |
| 1/2 tsp | 1.771 g | 0.0625 oz | 2.464 mL |
| 1/4 tsp | 0.8854 g | 0.0312 oz | 1.232 mL |
| 1/8 tsp | 0.4427 g | 0.0156 oz | 0.6161 mL |
US customary measures: 1 cup = 236.59 mL, 1 tbsp = 14.79 mL, 1 tsp = 4.93 mL.
| Ingredient | Grams per cup | Ounces per cup | Density (g/mL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Potato starch | 160 g | 5.644 oz | 0.6763 |
| Steel-cut oats | 160 g | 5.644 oz | 0.6763 |
| Semolina | 167 g | 5.891 oz | 0.7059 |
| Uncooked quinoa (this page) | 170 g | 5.997 oz | 0.7185 |
| Dry couscous | 170 g | 5.997 oz | 0.7185 |
| Uncooked white rice | 185 g | 6.526 oz | 0.7819 |
| Uncooked brown rice | 190 g | 6.702 oz | 0.8031 |
Ordered by weight. The spread across this group is why a single generic cups-to-grams factor cannot work.