Although I’m not vegan, I do on occasion like to switch it up and eat a meal a day that is vegetarian or vegan. Most of my meals are 50% veggies, 30% protein and 20% carb. This recipe is one of my go to’s because, frankly – I AM BUSY AF. I don’t have time to cook every single meal, every single day but this one I can batch make in about 20 minutes and have to nibble on throughout the week. Score!
The quinoa is a super food and one of the only plants to have all 9 essential amino acids necessary for creating proteins. Protein truly is the building block of life – responsible for breaking down food, growth, repairing body tissue and many other bodily functions. We call some of them “essential” because our body can’t create them on it’s own – we must eat them in order to get them. For vegans and vegetarians this isn’t impossible but it’s a challenge, especially when it’s a lot easier to eat fries and pizza to fill the hunger pains.
One thing to note on quinoa, beans, nuts and other grains – they are high in lectins. Lectins are the plant’s natural defense system against predators and they can cause digestive distress. To minimize lectin sensitivity you will want to wash the quinoa thoroughly – this will also remove the bitter flavours that come with lectins. You can also look for sprouted quinoa to help ease your digestion. You can sprout your own beans, grains and you can soak nuts and seeds to release these lectins if you are finding you are having a lot of issues digesting this tough proteins.
Try buying organic bell peppers, and tomatoes for this recipe as most of the veggies on here are in the Environmental Working Groups dirty dozen list for 2018. This list contains the fruits and veggies with the highest concentrations of pesticides and herbicides. Carrots and cucumbers are frequently on this list as well and are generally not that much more to buy organic.
Hope you enjoy this delicious and easy meal!
Ingredients
2 cups of quinoa
1 large carrot
1 bell pepper
½ cup of cherry tomatoes
½ red onion
2 english cucumbers
1 avocado
¼ cup of dill
Dressing of choice*
* I used a store bought green goddess dressing because it’s cheap and convenient -it’s from Trader Joes and is delicious! But you can just as easily make a green goddess dressing, pesto, chimichurri or just simply use EVOO, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
Instructions
- Wash quinoa thoroughly with water to wash lectins from the skin.
- Boil 4 cups of salted water in a pot and put quinoa in as you bring it to boil
- Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until water has been absorbed.
- While the quinoa is cooking, wash all your veggies. ganic so shoot for that too depending on where you get your produce
- Chop the carrots, bell peppers, onion and cucumbers into ½ or ¼ inch pieces and cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
- Roughly chop the dill
- Using a pear knife cut the avocado in half lengthwise, slice it into ¼ pieces and remove with a spoon. Remove the pit using a large chef’s knife and cut the other side of the avocado into pieces.
- When quinoa is cooked, remove from heat and let cool.
- Mix quinoa with veggies and top with dill.