For preparing the quinoa
Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan and then add the quinoa. Let simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes.
To save time, you can also use instant quinoa and prepare it according to the package directions. Some mixes cook in 8 minutes or less.
For the main dish
Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Wash and coarsely chop the tomato.
The original recipe calls for a red onion, which has a mild and slightly nutty flavor. You may also use a regular yellow onion.
Place the chickpeas in a sieve and rinse well.
You can also prepare the chickpeas yourself. To do so, soak dried chickpeas for 12 to 24 hours. In this time, the chickpeas will double in volume. After this step, cook the chickpeas over low to medium heat for 1 to 2 hours.
Place the quinoa in a bowl and stir in the onion, garlic, tomatoes, chickpeas, corn, cranberries, and hemp seed.
You can use frozen corn in place of fresh corn and dried cranberries instead of fresh cranberries. The author uses 2 tbsp hemp oil and 25 g hemp seed for this step; however, you can also use more hemp seed and then less or even no hemp oil, as we have done.
Seasoning and garnish
Season with salt and pepper. Rinse and finely chop the basil and then sprinkle on top of the dish.
For health reasons, we have listed less salt and pepper for this recipe, but you can season the dish according to taste. And it is better if those people who aren’t worried about their health season the dish on their own after it is served. It has been scientifically proven that it takes about three months to get used to consuming less salt.
Detailed Nutritional Information per Person for this Recipe
The majority of the nutritional information comes from the USDA (US Department of Agriculture). This means that the information for natural products is often incomplete or only given within broader categories, whereas in most cases products made from these have more complete information displayed.
If we take flaxseed, for example, the important essential amino acid ALA (omega-3) is only included in an overarching category whereas for flaxseed oil ALA is listed specifically. In time, we will be able to change this, but it will require a lot of work. An “i” appears behind ingredients that have been adjusted and an explanation appears when you hover over this symbol.
For Erb Muesli, the original calculations resulted in 48 % of the daily requirement of ALA — but with the correction, we see that the muesli actually covers >100 % of the necessary recommendation for the omega-3 fatty acid ALA. Our goal is to eventually be able to compare the nutritional value of our recipes with those that are used in conventional western lifestyles.
This quinoa bowl is packed with the energy and nutrients you need to refuel your body after a tough workout.
Nutritional value: Thanks to its high content of omega-3 fatty acids, this dish supports the nervous system. And the high fiber content aids the digestive process. The high protein content of this quinoa bowl with chickpeas and corn makes it an especially good choice for athletes.
You can vary the amount of salt and pepper according to taste. For health reasons, we use just a pinch of salt.
Read more about breaking the salt habit in our review of the book Salt Sugar Fat.
Tips
Quick version: To save time, use canned or frozen corn and chickpeas. If you have enough time, you can improve the flavor even more by using freshly prepared products.
Alternate preparation
Hemp oil: Along with the hemp seeds, you can also use hemp oil. Just reduce the amount of hemp seeds accordingly that you use in place of the oil. However, several US authors recommend that in general it is best to cook without using oil. Oils are a type of processed food and imbalanced in that they only contain fat-soluble substances.
