QUINOA BUDDHA BOWL A WONDERFUL COMPLETE PROTEIN MEAL

GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS

At the moment I am loving Quinoa, so much so that this glorious seed, a brilliant complete protein, is my new best friend it is soooo good that I can not wait to eat more, cook more and blog more...

Ingredients
Serves 2

120g Quinoa
500ml vegetable stock
1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
200g butternut squash peeled diced
1/2 lime juiced
12 sun blushed tomatoes chopped
1 carrot julienned
1/2 courgette julienned
2 handfuls fresh spinach
1 bunch coriander chopped
1 glug olive oil for cooking
1 tbsp olive oil for the dressing
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 avocado sliced

This is a fabulous bowl of good and greatness it hits a few of the must do's, a complete protein and lots of lovely fresh foods that provide some essential fats, vitamins and minerals, there is a hint of my geeky science bit below.

1.   First place your Quinoa in a saucepan with 500ml of vegetable stock and bring to a slow slow simmer pop on a lid and leave to cook for 12-15 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed, remove from the heat and place to one side.  Mean while bring a pan of water to a rolling simmer and add the butternut squash to cook until knife tip tender, around 10 minutes.

2.  Next mix the olive oil and balsamic vinegar together along with pinch of sea salt and reserve to one side. 

3.   In a large bowl mix the carrots, courgette and spinach and pour over the olive oil dressing and toss through.

4.   Drain the butternut squash, heat the olive oil in a pan medium hot, add the squash and pan sear for a few minutes until slightly caramelised, remove from the heat and season with sea salt.

5.   Now to assemble your gorgeous meal, divide the quinoa between two large serving bowls next add the sun blushed tomatoes, carrot and spinach dressed mix, butternut squash and coriander roughly toss through with your hands, finish off with half the avocado and drizzle over a squeeze of lime

Geeky Science Bit...

Gorgeous fluffy balls that taste so good and are a great source of protein, a complete protein which is brilliant for a non meat eater, a good source of calcium, magnesium and manganese along with good levels of multi B vitamins and E and a great source of fibre too.  This seed plant is also being looked at by NASA as a crop that they could grow on interplanetary flights...

High in anti-inflammatory phytonutrients a great benefit for prevention of disease, best of all Quinoa has all nine essential amino acids including the harder to come by on a vegan diet lysine and isoleucine acids along with a small amount of heart healthy omega 3 fatty acids and a monounsaturated fat.  Also a slowly digested carb making Quinoa a low GI option too.

The Ethical Pants Bit

As with every and any new technical super food that suddenly becomes trendy there is often a pay off, the locals in South America (Peru, Chile and Bolivia) have for thousands of years enjoyed their natural food, then all of a sudden someone/company discovers and decides to take this super food to the market, the demand and rapid increase raises sharply the cost of their humble seed to their local population who then become unable to afford their staple food.  Farmers are more in profit you think a good thing however from the sustainability point of view the land that once grew a multitude of diverse crops become dedicated to Quinoa fields, which then drives unfavourable conditions for the local growers.