Parsley Pesto

This dairy-free pesto is amazing on noodles or spaghetti squash, with meatballs, with lentils, with eggs, with roasted chicken, and in all sorts of quinoa / protein / veggie bowls. It can be loaded with extra garlic if you so choose (particularly for cold and flu season). Garlic mellows quite a bit when it sits in lemon juice and salt. I usually make a double batch because it tends to go fast in our house.

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Parsley Pesto
Adapted from The Candida Cure by Ann Boroch, which I know nothing about except that my mom made this recipe for me out of the book at one point and I fell in love with the pesto.

Notes: I know these instructions are vague, but bunches of parsley can vary quite a bit in size, and lemons can vary quite a bit in how juicy they are. Plus it’s all to taste. Some like more garlic and lemon than others. If you’re not sure, start with one garlic clove and the juice of half of a lemon. I generally use Italian parsley for this but you could use curly parsley just as well.

1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
Scant 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup raw pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1 bunch Italian (flat leaf) parsley, chopped, rough stems at the very bottom removed

Place the garlic in a food processor and cover with lemon and sea salt. Let it sit for about 5 minutes to mellow the garlic. Add in the pine nuts, olive oil and parsley and process to a desired consistency. Taste and adjust with more lemon, olive oil or salt as desired.

Melissa Clark's Instant Pot Lentils

This is one of my favorite ways to cook lentils, and I cook lentils a lot. If there are lentils in the fridge, I feel like we have something to eat. We typically enjoy these with some combination of chicken or chicken sausage, sweet potato oven fries, quinoa, salad and/or Spanish kale. I also sometimes eat these lentils in a cabbage leaf with some hot sauce, kind-of as an odd taco, but (at our house anyway) that’s just me…

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Melissa Clark’s Instant Pot Lentils
Adapted, only very slightly, from the Smoky Lentils + Sausage recipe in Dinner in an Instant by Melissa Clark

Notes: If I’m cooking mostly for myself and/or for incidental meals as needed, I’ll make the 1 1/2 cup version. But if I’m making these for our family dinner and would also like some leftovers for the next couple days, I’ll go for the 2 cup version. Iif you have celiac disease or are otherwise very sensitive to gluten, be sure to pick over your lentils to check for any gluten grains. Some batches will have quite a few hiding out in there. Rinse in a strainer when finished.

Special equipment:
Instant Pot or other pressure cooker

1 1/2 cups of dry lentils version:
Olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
Generous 2 3/4 cups filtered water
Several sprigs of fresh thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
2-3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar, or to taste

2 cups of dry lentils version:
Olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/3 cup dry red wine
2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
3 3/4 cups filtered water
Several sprigs of fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, or to taste

Turn your Instant Pot to the sauté function, pour in 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, add the onion and sauté for 5-8 minutes, stirring frequently. I like for the onions to soften quite a bit in this step. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute, stirring frequently. Grind in some black pepper, add the smoked paprika, quickly stir, then pour in the wine and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot.

Add the lentils, water and thyme sprigs and cook on high pressure for 11 minutes, then let the pressure release naturally. Once the pressure is completely released, open the lid and discard the thyme sprigs. Add sea salt and apple cider vinegar to taste and serve.

1 1/2 cup version serves 6-8.

2 cup version serves 8-10.

Quinoa Patties

These patties can be eaten anytime of the day and are one of my most requested recipes.

Most patties and fritters (including the recipe these are adapted from) have a good amount of breadcrumbs, but I make mine without them. For one, I haven't found a gluten-free source I'm happy with and baking a loaf of bread only to stale it for crumbs is too much even for me. So instead I use a bit more quinoa (this keeps the starch content lower) and a small amount of sprouted sorghum flour.

As long as you already have cooked quinoa in the fridge, this mixture comes together quickly and can be stored - refrigerated - for the better part of a week. I wouldn't use freshly cooked (read: hot) quinoa to make these as it could start to cook the egg a little. When you are ready to cook, they take about 20 minutes, which is mostly hands-off.

These are great for a to-go lunch. At home I usually serve them with a bit of mashed avocado, sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Salad, cultured or roasted vegetables on the side make them a complete meal.

Enjoy!! :)

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Quinoa Patties
Adapted from these Kale Quinoa Bites on 101Cookbooks.com.

Notes: I start with unsalted quinoa in this recipe. If your quinoa is salted, decrease the added salt a bit. As fas as onion goes, if I have a very large yellow onion, I use about 1/4 of it. For a medium one I’ll use about 1/2, and for a quite small yellow onion I’ll use the majority of it. Also, this recipe was originally written using brown rice flour. I’ve since moved to using sorghum flour as I find the patties stay together a bit better in the pan and stick less. Either one will work just fine. If you are not GF and use all-purpose flour, please leave a note in the comments about how it worked!

One last comment, this recipe was last updated to make a slightly larger batch using 3 eggs instead of two and 2 cups of quinoa instead of 1 1/2. The slightly higher egg to quinoa ratio makes them stay together better in the pan and it also makes 8 full patties.

Recipe updated 7/23/2020

3 large eggs, beaten
2 cups cooked, unsalted quinoa (I gently pack it into the measuring cup)
1/2 cup sorghum flour (I use sprouted)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 - 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped (see note)
3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
3-4 kale leaves, chopped into small-ish pieces
Olive oil, for cooking

Combine the eggs, quinoa, flour and sea salt in a medium/large mixing bowl and stir well. Add the chopped onion, garlic, kale and crumbled feta and stir again. You can either cook the patties right away or keep the mixture in the fridge until you need it.

To cook, you'll need a nonstick pan. I use my well-seasoned cast-iron pans. The small ones are perfect for making one patty at a time, or I make four patties in the big one. You will also need a lid to cover whichever pan you're using.

Preheat your pan at medium-low heat. When it's warm, add olive oil and heat for another few moments. Then, for each patty, plop some mixture onto the pan and use your spoon to shape each one so it's round and flat on top (see pictures). I generally make them about 3.5-4 inches in diameter. Cover and cook for 8-10 minutes one one side, flip, cover again, and cook for another 8-10 minutes on the other side. You'll quickly get a good sense of how long you need to cook them on your particular stove.

This recipe makes 8 round patties that are about 4 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick.