One of my summer staples is a rice salad with parsley, cilantro, tomato, scallions, garbanzos and maybe some feta cheese or black olives. I found myself wondering how I could create something similar on a raw food diet. The answer: sprouted quinoa salad. This didn't involve much prep time, but it did involve a little advance planning because I had to start sprouting the quinoa yesterday in order to eat it today.
Quinoa is a great addition to a raw (or any) diet because it's a complete protein; it's high in calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron, and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. It's also a good source of anti-inflammatory phytonutrients like quercetin. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations has declared 2013 the International Year of Quinoa, so perhaps you'll be hearing more about it soon.
Sprouting quinoa is easy. Quinoa, whether raw or cooked, needs to be well rinsed to remove the water-soluble outer coating, or else it will be bitter. So begin by put your quinoa in a bowl of water and swishing it around. You'll notice the water will be cloudy. This is from the bitter saponins you're trying to remove. Drain the water and repeat until the water remains clear. Drain the water and let your quinoa seeds sit for approximately eight hours, either in an upside down mason jar with cheesecloth rubberbanded to the lid, or in a fine mesh strainer. This way all the water will drain away.
After eight hours, swish your quinoa in a bowl of water again, and rinse and drain one more time. Let it sit another eight hours, rinse and strain, and take a good look at your quinoa. If you see tiny white tails a quarter inch long emerging from your seeds, you're done. Refrigerate your quinoa until you're ready to use it. However, if your kitchen is cool, you might not see any tails yet, in which case let your quinoa go another eight hours. By that time you should be able to give it one last rinse and drain, and it will be ready to use.
This morning I added tomato, parsley, cilantro, scallion, mint and avocado to my sprouted and dressed it with a garlic/lemon/olive oil dressing. I would have loved to add black olives or nut cheese, but I didn't have any. Nonetheless, this and a leftover carrot cake cookie made a delicious lunch to eat at my farmers market booth.
Post-market I had a snack of some blueberries, strawberries and leftover cashew cream: a little red, white and blue in advance of July 4th. My cashew cream is a couple of days old now, so I want to use it up.
For dinner I'm planning on having some raw avocado/cucumber soup leftover from yesterday and a big green salad. So far today I haven't had many leafy greens, and I'm craving them.
Speaking of yesterday, I was too short on time to post. But I'm sure I'll make the soup again before the summer's over, and write about it then.
Today's Chow:
Chocolate Banana smoothie!
Quinoa Salad, raw carrot cake cookie
Berries and cashew cream
Dinner (anticipated): green salad, avocado/cuke blender soup.
Quinoa is a great addition to a raw (or any) diet because it's a complete protein; it's high in calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron, and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. It's also a good source of anti-inflammatory phytonutrients like quercetin. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations has declared 2013 the International Year of Quinoa, so perhaps you'll be hearing more about it soon.
Sprouting quinoa is easy. Quinoa, whether raw or cooked, needs to be well rinsed to remove the water-soluble outer coating, or else it will be bitter. So begin by put your quinoa in a bowl of water and swishing it around. You'll notice the water will be cloudy. This is from the bitter saponins you're trying to remove. Drain the water and repeat until the water remains clear. Drain the water and let your quinoa seeds sit for approximately eight hours, either in an upside down mason jar with cheesecloth rubberbanded to the lid, or in a fine mesh strainer. This way all the water will drain away.
After eight hours, swish your quinoa in a bowl of water again, and rinse and drain one more time. Let it sit another eight hours, rinse and strain, and take a good look at your quinoa. If you see tiny white tails a quarter inch long emerging from your seeds, you're done. Refrigerate your quinoa until you're ready to use it. However, if your kitchen is cool, you might not see any tails yet, in which case let your quinoa go another eight hours. By that time you should be able to give it one last rinse and drain, and it will be ready to use.
This morning I added tomato, parsley, cilantro, scallion, mint and avocado to my sprouted and dressed it with a garlic/lemon/olive oil dressing. I would have loved to add black olives or nut cheese, but I didn't have any. Nonetheless, this and a leftover carrot cake cookie made a delicious lunch to eat at my farmers market booth.
Post-market I had a snack of some blueberries, strawberries and leftover cashew cream: a little red, white and blue in advance of July 4th. My cashew cream is a couple of days old now, so I want to use it up.
For dinner I'm planning on having some raw avocado/cucumber soup leftover from yesterday and a big green salad. So far today I haven't had many leafy greens, and I'm craving them.
Speaking of yesterday, I was too short on time to post. But I'm sure I'll make the soup again before the summer's over, and write about it then.
Today's Chow:
Chocolate Banana smoothie!
Quinoa Salad, raw carrot cake cookie
Berries and cashew cream
Dinner (anticipated): green salad, avocado/cuke blender soup.
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