PORRIDGE WITH FRUITS

SUPER MEALS

Use this porridge as a summer drink, lighten it up with water and have it at any occasion. Kids will love it, give it instead of sodas or any drink with no nutrition. Excellent for pre and post work outs, building veggie muscles, energizing your day and sharpening your mind. It is fun to make too!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup quinoa

1/2 cup amaranth

2 apples - chopped in slices

2 cups orange juice (go to your local farmers market and get oranges picked ripe from the tree)

1 cup chopped pineapple

8 oz. panela or 1/2 cup of your favorite sweetener

1 cup of oats

1 TBSP cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

pinch sea salt

pinch cayenne pepper

PREPARATION:

Boil quinoa and amaranth in 4 cups of water, use a 3 to 4 quarts cooking pot. Once the water boils for 3 minutes, drain the water (this is to also get rid of enzyme inhibitors that do not taste very good) and add 5 cups of water. Add the chopped apples, cinnamon and cloves. Mix continuously so that the quinoa and amaranth do not stick to the bottom of the pot. Keep at high heat and once it starts boiling, reduce to medium to low heat for about 8 more minutes. While that is boiling, blend the panela with orange juice and pineapple until it dissolves and place it in a bowl. Then, soak the oats in this liquid. After the 8 minutes, add this mix with the quinoa and amaranth, boiling on medium heat for 3 more minutes. If you want to make sure the cereal is cooked right, take a little bit out of the pot, cool it down and smash the cereal with your fingers. If it easily become a purée, it has cooked too much. If it is hard to the touch and breaks with effort, it needs a couple minutes more. Think of these cereals as rice, they can finish cooking with the epidural heat after you turn off the fire.

Enjoy!

My grandmother use to come into the kitchen and scream to me when I was doing my porridge, “que menjunque estas haciendo?!” something like, “what a complicated thick mass are you doing?” I was about 8 years old so it was fun! Sometimes I would make it extra thick and eat it cold with extra sugar and any seasonal fruit available. It will become a sweet nourishing dessert. Growing up I was very interested in the healing and nutritional properties of all herbs, cereals and fruits. I was a nerdy kid, what can I say. Later on, I heard Amaranth was use for astronauts, as part of their diet, since it has highly nourishing properties and once it pops, it takes up little volume and space, as well.