Abel and Cole: Detox the New Year with Kale and Quinoa Tabbouleh
If your kids are like mine, you might get them to try this on the end of a crisp; basically this is a recipe to get the grown-ups some intense nutritional therapy to get us over the hump into spring. I tried this recipe in my travels over the holiday season and did my best to replicate it in my kitchen as it was so delicious and so super foodie.
You will have to make adjustments with the lemon and the salt according to your tastes, the first time through I added way too much onion and then too much lemon, so my advice is to add these in slowly. You can easily jazz the recipe up with mint, parsley, cumin … but I kept it simple, going along with what I had in my box.
Ingredients:
2 mugs of Quinoa
2 and ½ mugs of water
Onion (start with a portion the size of half a hard-boiled egg and increase after tasting)
1 or 2 mugs of fresh, chopped tomatoes (depending on taste)
1 bunch of kale
Good dash of salt
Good glug of olive oil
1 lemon (squeeze in slowly and adjust to taste)
Optional, fresh mint, parsley, coriander, cumin powder
Method:
Boil that water and the quinoa on the stove for 20 minutes. I have cooked quinoa loads of different ways, like pasta where you splash off the extra water at the end or like rice where the quinoa soaks up the measured water – either method works, so you don’t have to be too fussy about how you boil your quinoa,, just make sure it has popped out of its case and tastes tender.
In the food processor combine a small portion of the onion, the salt the lemon and oil, then wash the kale thoroughly (start with 3 or 4 leaves) and put in the processor. Lots of recipes say to leave the stems off, I kept mine on to not waste food and still liked the taste. Whizz this around for a few bursts and give it a quick taste, see if you want to add any more flavours.
When the quinoa has cooled, mix in the kale and the fresh, chopped tomatoes. Give this a taste and see if you might add some more lemon, more salt or more kale even.
This is a raw, superfood dish, bursting with vitamins and nutrients we need to get us through winter and into spring. Let me know your thoughts!!
