Quinoa Tabbouleh

Summer is here in Phoenix, regardless of whether or not the solstice has actually passed. Sunlight stretches itself out across longer days. The noisy kids that used to throw rocks at each other (and our windows) in the grass behind our apartment have moved on to throwing each other into the pool. And, oh yeah, it’s hot. The perk of weather being warmer, however, is that produce like fruits and tomatoes are in season and there are lots to go around. Cheap fruits = happy Emily.

Since it’s so hot (and, honestly, I’m a little lazy when it comes to cooking sometimes), I’ve been eating way more fruits and vegetables than before, and almost no meat. It’s part of a phenomenon that happens to me every summer season, in which I have almost no desire to eat anything except for fruit and smoothies. And while some people - like Jonas (pronounced Yoh-nuss, by the way), the man I bought dates from at the farmers market - may be able to live exclusively on fruit for years, I actually cannot. Not even for a day. What I can do, however, is make food that will sound appealing when I get home from making people large hot black Americanos even when it’s 110 degrees out. One such food is tabbouleh.

Traditionally, tabbouleh is made with bulgur wheat. However, I had no bulgur (it’s not exotic – just whole wheat kernels ground into different sizes), but had lots of quinoa, so that's what I used. It has a similar texture, tastes great, and is also gluten free!

Quinoa Tabbouleh

½ cup dry quinoa, rinsed

¼ cup olive oil

Juice from one lemon

½ a cucumber, peeled and chopped

½ cup of cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 tbsp fresh mint, minced

1 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Black pepper and dried oregano to taste

Add quinoa to a saucepan with 1 ½ cups of water. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to low until the quinoa has absorbed all of the liquid, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool to at least room temperature. While the quinoa is cooling off, juice your lemon and chop the herbs and vegetables. When the quinoa is ready, add the lemon juice, oil, and herbs directly into the bowl and mix so that everything is evenly coated.

You can enjoy this recipe as a salad alongside a protein, or on its own with pita, vegetables, and hummus. Either way, it’s so refreshing, and lasted me a week.

Matcha Mango Super Smoothie

If there really is such a thing as purchasing too much fruit, my roommate and I have accomplished it. Our freezer is filled with plastic bags containing the remains of pint-sized cartons of blueberries, strawberries, and entire pineapples. And then there are the bananas. We buy bananas with good intentions: they’re quick - an easy snack for those 5-in-the-morning shifts. That is, if we actually decide to eat one. Instead, they linger in the fruit bowl, over-ripening tomatoes and getting all speckled and mushy. We don’t like to waste food, so what do we do? Into the freezer they go. We will never not have bananas in our freezer. It has become a way of life for us.

The surplus of fruit in our freezer has only become problematic because soon we won’t be able to fit anything else in it. Ok, I’m exaggerating a little bit here, but the it is a very real possibility, especially because we keep buying fruit. One can only enjoy strawberry banana smoothies for so long, so I’ve been getting creative with my fruity, blended creations. Take for instance, today’s offering on the blog: my matcha mango super smoothie. This smoothie is full of trendy, healthy buzzwords in its name, and it is also full of trendy, healthy food items like matcha, chia seeds, and spinach – another staple goes-bad-way-too-quickly food of Struggletown. This is a green smoothie unlike any other you have had. It’s delicately sweetened, packed full of antioxidants, and is actually filling. I like to balance the fruits and vegetables I put in my smoothies so I’m not drinking a sugar bomb, and I like to think that this is the first smoothie that I’ve actually made to fit this balance successfully.

1 mango, peeled and diced

1 banana, frozen

1 cup fresh spinach leaves

1 cup ice

½ cup almond milk

1 ½ tsp matcha powder

1 tsp honey

½ tsp chia seeds

Splash lime or lemon juice

Add all of the ingredients except for the chia seeds to a blender. Blend on high until smooth. There shouldn’t really be any chunks or flecks of spinach. Add the chia seeds and pulse 2-3 times to incorporate them, but not pulverize them. If you don’t like the texture of chia seeds, by all means leave them out, or add them to the blender with the other ingredients so they’re ground up with the rest of the smoothie.