The journey to healthy eating did not come over night, but was rather through a series of events and actions that led to my interest in the way food affects our bodies and minds. As a child, my dad took me grocery shopping. I always begged for the Oreo cookies, greasy potato chips and Nachoes, but the answer was always no. The yes was always for the fruit juice sweetened cookies. I look back on these times fondly when my dad and I would go grocery shopping. He said "no" so many times I just stopped asking. It was a futile effort to get junk food from my dad. Although looking back on my life, I am so thankful my dad cared enough about my health to say no to junk food. As I got older, my interest in healthy eating landed me in a healthy eating cooking class in my twenties, Glorious Grains and Bountiful Beans. In this cooking class, I learned how to prepare quinoa in addition to other healthy foods. I learned how to make a healthy peach cobbler, delicious aloo gobi, healthy vegan chili and this quinoa tabouli I still make today, about twenty years later. Although I have modified this dish to suit my taste, it still retains the special flavor it has in the original recipe. Thankfully, I have started growing mint in a planter in the backyard so I always have mint on hand for this recipe. Mint is so easy to grow and anyone can grow it. Parsley is a bit more challening to grow but I highly encourage anyone to try and grow their own parsley. I prefer the Italian parsley for this recipe as opposed to the coarser curly parsley due to the texture Italian parsley offers this dish. Lemons are also used in this recipe and in our old home we had a lemon tree. Lemons grow readily in Southern California and many people already have lemon and orange trees in their backyard. As far as the quinoa, I get the Costco brand Kirkland. The Kirkland quinoa is pre-washed and organic which takes the entire step of washing the quinoa out of the equation. All quinoa needs to be pre-washed to remove the bitter coating. If you have olive oil, garlic, onion and cucumber on hand you are ready to make this dish! I always like to keep my pantry stocked with garlic and onions since I always manage to use them in the dishes I prepare at home. So, here is the recipe...
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
2 tbs mint leaves, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp olive oil
juice of 4-5 lemons
1 cucumber, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
Cook the quinoa according to package instructions. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a big bowl. Chill for 2 hours in the refrigerator and you are ready to enjoy!!
I really know you are going to love making this quinoa tabouli as much as I do! Feel free to modify this recipe according to your taste. You can always add less or more garlic, or one less lemon. You can add 1/2 cucumber as opposed to an entire cucumber. Feel free to play around with this recipe to suit you! One of the things I love about this dish is the way I feel after eating it! Food should nuture your body and soul. Food should life you up and not feel heavy and weigh you down. This is certainly a recipe that is light and helps bring energy into the body. I know you will enjoy it and I encourage you to give this one a try!
Bon Apetite!
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