uinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) has been cultivated for several thousand years in South America, It is a highly nutritious food product, with a high mineral content. Quinoa is now considered an alternative to traditional crops in a climate change scenario, given it more stability to adapt to marginal soils, droughts and frosts. Despite the interesting agronomic and nutritional charactertistics of this crop, quinoa is characterized by individual attempts to define its phenological stages. This research consisted of evaluating the phenological, morphological and biochemical behavior of four quinoa varieties (Salcedo INIA, Santa Maria, Amarilla sacaca and Giza 02) during the spring season in the semi-arid region of Algeria. Results showed considerable variations across genotypes in a range of morphological characters, which are useful as indicators in characterizing quinoa plants, including plant color, leaf morphology, panicle characteristics and seed size and color. Santa Maria and Giza have presented the best characteristics. Furthermore, mineral analysis by spectrometry confirmed the interest for quinoa nutritional contents and demonstrated that quinoa seeds are rich in potassium, sodium and other minerals.