Couscous vs Quinoa nutrition
Cooked couscous has more carbs. Cooked quinoa has more fat, sugar and fiber.
- Cooked couscous100 g
- Cooked quinoa100 g
Each row is scaled on its own: the larger amount fills the bar. The numbers on the right are the real amounts.
Each food is weighed the same: 100 grams of each. The longer bar has more.
Show all 15 nutrients
Exact amounts and % Daily Value
| Nutrient | Cooked couscous | Cooked quinoa | Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 112 kcal (6%) | 120 kcal (6%) | 2,000 kcal |
| Protein | 3.8 g (8%) | 4.4 g (9%) | 50 g |
| Fat | 0.16 g (<1%) | 1.9 g (2%) | 78 g |
| Saturated fat | 0.03 g (<1%) | 0.23 g (1%) | 20 g |
| Carbs | 23.2 g (8%) | 21.3 g (8%) | 275 g |
| Fiber | 1.4 g (5%) | 2.8 g (10%) | 28 g |
| Sugar | 0.1 g | 0.87 g | none set |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg (0%) | 0 mg (0%) | 300 mg |
| Salt (sodium) | 5 mg (<1%) | 7 mg (<1%) | 2,300 mg |
| Potassium | 58 mg (1%) | 172 mg (4%) | 4,700 mg |
| Calcium | 8 mg (<1%) | 17 mg (1%) | 1,300 mg |
| Iron | 0.38 mg (2%) | 1.5 mg (8%) | 18 mg |
| Magnesium | 8 mg (2%) | 64 mg (15%) | 420 mg |
| Vitamin A | 0 µg (0%) | 0 µg (0%) | 900 µg |
| Vitamin C | 0 mg (0%) | 0 mg (0%) | 90 mg |
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How the numbers are taken. Amounts are per 100 g of the edible part, from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy, public domain), in the state named — raw, boiled, roasted and so on. Percentages use the FDA Daily Values for adults and children aged 4 and over, set around a 2,000-calorie diet; your own needs can be different. This site compares amounts — it does not give diet or medical advice. Sources and limits.
What is being compared
This page compares cooked couscous and cooked quinoa as USDA FoodData Central lists them: “Couscous, cooked” (FDC 169700) and “Quinoa, cooked” (FDC 168917). All figures start from 100 grams of the edible part. A search for “couscous” is taken here as cooked couscous. A search for “quinoa” is taken here as cooked quinoa; dry quinoa is in the comparer above.
Per 100 grams
Per 100 grams, cooked couscous has more carbohydrate (23.2 vs 21.3 g). Cooked quinoa has more calories (120 vs 112 kcal), protein (4.4 vs 3.8 g), fat (1.9 vs 0.16 g, about 12 times as much), saturated fat (0.23 vs 0.03 g, 7.7 times as much), fiber (2.8 vs 1.4 g, 2.0 times as much), sugars (0.87 vs 0.1 g, 8.7 times as much), sodium (7 vs 5 mg), potassium (172 vs 58 mg, 3.0 times as much), calcium (17 vs 8 mg, 2.1 times as much), iron (1.5 vs 0.38 mg, 3.9 times as much) and magnesium (64 vs 8 mg, 8.0 times as much). They are within 3% of each other for cholesterol, vitamin A and vitamin C.
Read the rest — 4 more sections
Per serving
A serving as USDA measures it is 1 cup, cooked of cooked couscous (157 g) and 1 cup of cooked quinoa (185 g). The two servings weigh about the same, so the per-serving picture follows the per-100 g one closely. Switching to servings changes the leader for carbohydrate (now cooked quinoa). One serving is 176 kcal of cooked couscous against 222 kcal of cooked quinoa.
For the same calories
To get 100 kcal you would eat 89.3 g of cooked couscous or 83.3 g of cooked quinoa. At that equal energy, cooked couscous carries 3.4 g of protein and cooked quinoa 3.7 g. Fiber per 100 kcal is 1.3 g against 2.3 g. Measured per 100 kcal, every nutrient keeps the same leader as per 100 g.
Where the calories come from
Roughly, 14% of the energy in cooked couscous comes from protein, 1% from fat and 85% from carbohydrate; for cooked quinoa it is 15%, 14% and 71%. These shares use the general 4, 9 and 4 kcal per gram and can differ slightly from USDA's own energy factors.
Against the Daily Value
1 cup, cooked of cooked couscous reaches its largest shares of the Daily Value in carbohydrate (13%), protein (12%) and fiber (8%); 1 cup of cooked quinoa reaches its largest shares of the Daily Value in magnesium (28%), fiber (19%) and protein (16%). Daily Values are the FDA label reference amounts for adults and children aged 4 and over, set around a 2,000-calorie diet; they are a yardstick for reading labels, not a target for any one person.