Good-bye gluten, hello-a Quinoa!

My dear old Daddio reccomended I try this fantastic stuff called quinoa (thanks Dad, this is FAB!) to replace whole-wheat pasta, since that was one of the few things I was cooking and the only thing I was still eating containing gluten, an inflammatory agent found in wheat and other grains. I decided to do a bit of research online and make the quinoa the raw way, and YUM, it is absolutely FANTASTIC stuff. I FAR prefer this to pasta!

I decided to make a salad that's reminiscent of pasta-but I like this much better.

Quinoa Pasta Salad

150g uncooked Quinoa (you can buy this in the health food section at Tesco's, or I'd imagine anywhere else you do your shopping seeing as how Tesco's is a "commercial" grocery store!)
1 Large Aromatic Vine Ripened Tomato
2 Medium Greens Leafs (A large handful of spinach leafs would substitute fine, I'd imagine.)
1 Tbsp Pine Nut Pesto, optional
Ground "Feef" for meatballs
Nutritional yeast
White Pepper

Soak the quinoa in a bowl of water-leave it overnight, for between 12-18 hours. The Quinoa will soak up the water, soften and sprout a bit. Drain the excess water and divide between two bowls. Chop the tomatoes and Greens and divide them, spread them over the bowls....use a half-teaspoon to make mini meatballs to put in (I used 6 meatballs per bowl. spread out a little bit of pesto if you like, and use nutritional yeast in place of parmesan cheese. Nutritional yeast is fantastic because it is loaded with rich B vitamins and is deactivated so you needn't worry about candida. Sprinkle the salad with white pepper to taste and serve. Serves 2, of course, but you can easily double, triple, or quadruple this recipe if you are uncooking for a larger crowd. This is very quick and easy to make-took me less than 10 minutes to throw everything together after the sprouts had been soaked. Easy healthy dinner!

Mambo Italiano!

This meal is a beauty (and very heart-healthy with all the tomatoey goodness :)) it is not entirely raw, but mostly so and is jam packed with Italian inspired flavours.

For a starter, we have:

Stuffed Tomatoes with Pine Nut Pesto

2 large Aromatic Tomatoes
1 large Greens leaf (I don't know what kind of "greens" these are...at the store it just says "Cornish Greens" :/ The leaves are however HUGE, very long and dark green and they come in a big bulb somewhat like cabbage does, I hope that helps some...they are similar to spinach so spinach could easily be substituted if you cannot find something like this! )
Pine Nut Pesto, which I will detail below.

Gently cut off only the very tops of the tomatoes. Cut them in half and scoop out the innards. Chop and dice your greens and divide them into quarters. If you desire, you may gently cook the tomatoes open-face down on a skillet-but be careful not to cook them too much because A. the nutrient content will be drastically altered with cooking which is why we eat raw to begin with and B. they will fall apart when you try to "stuff" them. Now, simply stuff the greens inside and garnish with as much pine-nut pesto as you like. Serves 1-4, depending on how much you want to eat ;)

Pine Nut Pesto

3 Handfuls of Pine Nuts
2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil (I used the nice flavoured oo from the sun dried tomato jar, but EVOO will substitute fine.)
1 clove Raw Garlic
A few sprigs of fresh Basil
A few grinds of black pepper

Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor. Pulse, stir, and repeat a few times, noting that it will be chunky.

Pasta

Whole-wheat spaghetti
Sauce of your choice (I used Napolina's Tomato & Basil, I know...lazy!)
Pine Nut Pesto

Cook, top with sauce and pesto, enjoy!