Lemony Quinoa Salad with Toasted Sunflower Seeds

Serves 6 to 8

With its bright, sprightly flavors, this is a wonderful springtime dish. But there’s nothing to say you can’t serve it with a green salad in summer or roasted vegetables in winter. To make the sunflower seeds more easily digestible, soak them overnight beforehand.

  3 3/4 cups water

  1/2 teaspoon sea salt

  2 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed

  1 cup raw sunflower seeds, presoaked if you like

  3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

  1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Bring the water and salt to a boil in a medium-size saucepan. Add the quinoa, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes, until all of the water is absorbed. Transfer the quinoa to a large bowl and let it cool to room temperature.

            Meanwhile, toast the sunflower seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring often, for 3 to 5 minutes, until they are aromatic and start to pop. Add the sunflower seeds to the quinoa, along with the lemon juice and oil, and stir until well combined. Taste and adjust the seasonings if desired.

 Variations

• Quinoa with Herbs and Toasted Sunflower Seeds: Increase the amount of sunflower seeds to 1 1/4 cups. Omit the lemon juice and increase the amount of olive oil to 7 tablespoons. Add 1/2 cup of chopped marjoram or oregano leaves when you stir everything together. Taste and adjust the seasonings; you may want more salt.
• Quinoa Tabouli: Add 1 cup of chopped parsley and 1 cup of chopped scallions when you stir everything together.
• Swap pumpkin seeds for the sunflower seeds.
• Forgo toasting the sunflower seeds; instead, add them to the saucepan when you add the quinoa.

Reprinted with permission by New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook by Leslie Cerier www.lesliecerier.com

Blueberry Super Smoothie

Anti-oxidant rich and tasty, this smoothie is quick and easy to make. Try it for a snack or breakfast. Feel free to swap your favorite (pasture raised cow or sheep yogurt are also good choices. Other flavors of juice would also be fine. Feel free to use other berries: raspberries, and strawberries are great, too.

Serves 1 for a very hearty breakfast

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
¾ cup plain goat yogurt
¾ cup tart cherry juice
2 Tablespoons Navitas Naturals Palm Sugar
1 Tablespoon Navitas Naturals Acai Powder
1 Tablespoon Navitas Naturals Maqui Powder
1 teaspoon Simply Organic vanilla extract

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Taste, and if desired, add additional palm sugar for a sweeter flavor.

For 15% off all Navitasnatural.com products, please enter the code leslie15 at navitasnaturals.com

This will save 15% on: http://www.navitasnaturals.com/

Have a Great Organic Feast

Recipe by Leslie Cerier, Copyright reserved to Leslie Cerier 2012

Leslie Cerier, The Organic Gourmet

Grow Your Own Herbs

Leslie Among the Herbs

The end of the growing season doesn’t have to mean the end of fresh herbs.  Herbs make fragrant and attractive house plants.  Whether you live in the country and have your own organic garden or live in the city, consider growing your own herbs.

House-bound Herbs Need…

Light: If your most convenient window doesn’t get much, supplement it with a special bulb called a grow light.  (Two hours of grow light equal one hour of natural sunlight.)  Requirements vary:

All day sun: Chives, basil, anise, marjoram, borage, chervil, coriander, caraway, dill, rosemary, savory.

Partial sun: Mint, bay leaf, parsley, rosemary, thyme, myrtle.

No direct light: Ginger, lemon balm.  If the foliage turns yellow, the plant needs more light.

Moisture: Use luke warm water or the rinse water from sprout making.

Keep moist: Mints, lemon balm, rosemary, ginger, scented geraniums.

Dry out between watering: Bay leaf, marjoram, sage, oregano, thyme.

Seldom Water: Aloe (the very useful “burn plant”) thrives on neglect-dry soil and little light.

To increase humidity, set potted herbs on trays filled with water and gravel.  Make sure the plants are over the water, not in it.

Fresh air: Herbs thrive at 50 degrees to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  On cold days, a slightly open window in an adjoining room will provide cool air without a draft.

Pest protection: Although herbs are usually pest free, indoor conditions can sometimes attract bugs.  If they do, make a soap spray by dissolving two tablespoons of Ivory Soap Flakes in lukewarm water.  Spray both sides of the leaves once a week.  Note: Rinse leaves thoroughly before cooking or eating.

Space: Use a container with a diameter of one-half to one-third the ultimate height of the plant.  Group plants together (this creates humidity) but not so close that they touch.

Plant an indoor window box: Place large plants (rosemary and tarragon) at the edges.  Put smaller plants (basil, chives, thyme, parsley, and marjoram) in the center.  Not good in boxes: Sage needs a deep container…lemon balm and mint spread like crazy.

Decorate with herbs: Put parsley, basil, thyme, marjoram, savory, and nasturtium in hanging baskets.  Put tall plants (bay leaf and lovage) in decorative pots in corners.  Place miniature plants (oregano, parsley, thyme) on tables or shelves.

Trimming: Keep plants cut back for a uniform, attractive appearance.

Lavender

To get Started

Herbs can be grown from…

Seeds.* Clean your containers and fill them one fourth to one third full with drainage material (bits of broken bricks or clay pots, pebbles).  Then fill them to within one inch of the top with sterile commercial potting soil.  Label.  Mist daily until germination, then water as needed.  Fertilize with liquid seaweed or fish emulsion one week after germination and again in one month.  When the plants grow their first set of true leaves, thin them by leaving only the healthiest plant in each pot.

Cuttings. Get cutting from friends with outdoor herb gardens.  Many herbs (chives, mint, oregano, lemon balm, etc.) spread so quickly that gardeners are happy to give some plants away.  If you can’t plant the cuttings immediately, put them in water.  When time permits, prepare a pot with a drainage layer, then fill it about half-way with soil, tamping firmly.  Soak the soil.

Small Plants from a nursery. These are the easiest to deal with, but the most costly-about $2.50 each.

* The best seeds (open pollinated and chemically untreated) are available in natural food and gardening stores and on the Internet:

High Mowing Organic Seeds– www.highmowingseeds.com/

Johnny’s Selected Seeds– www.johnnyseeds.com

Seeds of Change– www.seedsofchange.com

Originally published in The Quick and Easy Organic Gourmet by Leslie Cerier Copyright 1996. All right reserved to Leslie Cerier.

“Celebrated cookbook authors Leslie Cerier and Robin Asbell suggest great ways to cook with cornmeal—in all its guises.

Leslie Cerier, author of Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook: A Seasonal, Vegetarian Cookbook, believes that everything goes with either yellow or white cornmeal and cooks and bakes with both interchangeably. That said, Cerier does confess to relying on visual appeal to help her choose one over the other. For instance, if she has kale and leeks or onions on hand, she’ll make cornmeal fritters with yellow cornmeal because of the ingredients’ contrasting colors. “It’s about novelty, versatility, and being playful,” she says.

Cerier recommends making corn fritters with white cornmeal, carrots, and butternut squash, and savory pancakes with white cornmeal and quinoa or brown teff flour because of the way the colors play off the white meal. She also especially enjoys sweet pancakes and waffles made with corn flour.”

Here is the link to read the whole article:

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/features/987

Have a great organic feast!

Leslie