Last night, I was blessed with the opportunity to host a workshop on clean eating.  Knowing that I wanted to provide this beautiful group of women with tasty and “clean” snacks, I decided to try something new.

I picked up some fresh mint earlier in the week and knew that I wanted to incorporate it into one of the dishes.  So, I decided to take a favorite, basic quinoa dish of mine and flare it up with some minty flavor.

Learning to eat clean is about learning to simplify, and as you can see below, this dish is very simple.

You will need:

1 cup quinoa, uncooked

1 cup green peas

½ cup fresh mint, chopped

Juice from ½ a lemon

¼ cup olive oil, plus a drizzle for cooking the quinoa

Sea salt

1-2 cloves garlic, grated

Make sure to rinse the quinoa thoroughly before adding it to the cooking water – quinoa contains a natural pesticide that needs to be rinsed off to prevent it altering the flavor.  Cook quinoa according to package (usually 1:2 ratio of quinoa to water).  I like to use half vegetable broth as the liquid to add some flavor to the quinoa.

Place quinoa, water, about 1-teaspoon sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil in the water and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, cover and turn heat to low.

When quinoa is done cooking and all water is absorbed (about 15-20 minutes), let it sit, covered, for another 5-10 minutes – this helps prevent the quinoa from being mushy.

If peas are frozen, place them over the quinoa while it is cooling – this will thaw them.  Once thawed, place quinoa and peas in a mixing bowl.

Add mint, lemon juice, grated garlic, ¼ cup olive oil, and sea salt to taste.  Mix everything together and the dish is ready to be served.

This combination stays great in the fridge for a few days, so it can be made ahead of time. 

I hope to see you in 2 weeks when I host part 2 of my “Summer of Health” series.

with love and minty freshness,

Amanda