Damn Hippies

Here's a typical "Hi, I'm a pretentious hippie and I want to feed you things that will keep you alive for a millenium and also taste fucking delicious" recipe.

It has quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) and spelt and dried cranberries and olive oil and curry powder and brazil nuts and other things.

Its basically a health food freak's dream salad. So where did I find it?

The Cafe Flora Cookbook, of course!

Curried Whole Grain Salad Pg 102

I have SO. MUCH. QUINOA. Why? Because every time I go grocery shopping, I decide to buy some, in hopes that I'll start eating it on a regular basis.

"What the hell's so great about quinoa?" all the non-hippies ask. Here's a bulleted list of it's greatness:

• It's gluten-free.
• It has an assload of vitamins and minerals, including calcium, fiber, b-vitamins, riboflavin, manganese, and all sorts of other shit.
• It has a 12 - 18 % protein content! Yay!
• It has all 9 essential amino acids.

Now that you know why everyone flips out about it, here's how you cook it.

You know how you cook rice?

Yeah. Cook this stuff EXACTLY like rice.

2:1 ratio of water to quinoa. Boil the water, then put the quinoa in, lower heat to a simmer, cover it, and wait about 15 minutes. Then eat it.

Done.

So for this recipe, you need to soak a cup of spelt or wheat berries (I chose spelt) for 8 hours beforehand.

8 hours later, please cook your quinoa (1/2 cup worth).

This is dry quinoa!

This is cooked quinoa! Notice the cute little swirly things! <3

After all this, you will cook your soaked spelt.

MIX 'EM TOGETHER....

THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE ^^^^

Then, you'll make your dijon curry vinagrette. You basically mix these ingredients:

I can't remember the exact proportions, but this sauce includes agave nectar, olive oil, pepper, salt, dijon mustard, curry powder, and a little lemon juice.

Then chop up some nuts (I chose brazil nuts)

Then some cranberrries (dried)

Then mix it all together....

And feast like a true hippie! YEAH!

RATINGS:

Ease of preparation: 4/5
Simple instructions, mildly time-consuming. Especially with the presoaking.

Deliciousness: 4/5
Bright tastes, nutty, delicious texture. A little heavy, though, for a "salad" type dish.

Prettiness: 5/5
Bright colors and fancy looking grains! Sure to impress non-vegans with it's trendy little weirdness.