One Healthy Side Dish with 7 Variations

I often hear. “I buy healthy food, it just gets shoved in the back of the fridge and by the time I remember it's there, it’s time to throw it out.”

Sound like you?

That’s why I love batch cooking. When you learn to batch cook you’ll be able to buy a few ingredients and spread them across multiple meals with little waste. 

One of my favorite gut healthy ingredients in parsley. Parsley has evidence to help with digestive problems, including irritable bowel syndrome. (1) Curly parsley also stays fresh in the fridge for days!

Here’s one of my favorite side dish recipes which has 7+ variations.

Quinoa Tabouli

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Yield: serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• sea salt, optional
• sliced or chopped cucumber
• minced red onion
• chopped fresh scallion
• chopped fresh mint

Dressing:

• juice of several lemons
• Bragg's extra-virgin olive oil
• sea salt

Directions:

1. Bring rinsed and drained quinoa to a boil with water and salt.
2. Cover and reduce to low heat. Cook for 20-25 minutes until water has absorbed.
3. Fluff quinoa with a fork or spoon and transfer to bowl.
4. Meanwhile, make lemon vinaigrette by combining lemon juice, olive oil and salt to taste (essentially, 2 parts juice to one part oil).
5. Combine all ingredients and refrigerate salad until chilled.

The key to batch cooking is making extra of 1 ingredient to use in multiple meals. Here you can make extra quinoa and use it in the following variations.

Variations:

1. Add cubed, cooked beets, cucumbers, blanched carrots, broccoli or cauliflower florets, halved cherry tomatoes, snap peas, corn kernels or any other colorful vegetable you feel is appropriate (beets will turn quinoa slightly pink).
2. For a gut health boost substitute Bragg's apple cider vinegar for lemon juice and add dijon mustard for zing.
3. Add umeboshi plum vinegar to the dressing for a pungent flavor.
4. Add freshly chopped basil or dill to the salad for freshness.
5. Stir fry veggies with coconut aminos and serve over cooked quinoa
6. Add black beans to quinoa as a festive Mexican side dish for taco Tuesday
7. Or check out these tasty quinoa recipes from Feasting At Home 

Schedule a Break thru the Gut Rut strategy call with me today to start understanding your reactive foods and how to balance your system to start feeling good. Schedule your session here-> BREAK THRU

Be Gutsy as a Mother,

-Mary

Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner

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