Quinoa Salad: Journey to wellness
This is one of those salads that need not be relegated to a side dish. If you don’t have time to make the labneh you could replace it with goats cheese. Start the labneh the day before if using.
=R1=
Enjoy x
Journey To Wellness
“One cannot afford to be naive in dealing with dreams. They originate in a spirit that is not quite human, but is rather a breath of nature – a spirit of the beautiful and generous as well as of the cruel goddess.” Carl Jung
The famous Austrian analyst Carl Jung recognized there were two types of dreams. The ordinary and the big. The ordinary dreams being the arena of our daily lives, providing insight to our little anxieties. The big dreams he referred to as “the forgotten language of God”.
“Dreams are a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul” Carl Jung.
I had many rooms in my psyche and I was choosing to crouch in the corner of one small room.
In terms of coding dreams I tend toward the Jungian stream of thought. Jung believed that dreams were so intensely personal that they could not be decoded by a common group of meanings. He thought of dreams as a message from our own subconscious and meanings would be different for everyone.
Years ago I had a big dream. The forgotten language of God kind of dream. I dreamed that I was in a house that was my home when I stumbled upon rooms in the house I had not known existed. The rooms were palatial, exquisite and I was dumbfounded that they had been there all along.
Yesterday I recalled a part of that dream. I suspect this is common with the “big” dreams. One can recollect certain details of it years later. An image in a magazine reminded me of the dream. When I finished remembering the dream, the meaning presented itself straight afterwards. It may seem glaringly obvious to anyone reading this but I have only just understood that my subconscious was telling me that I had many rooms in my psyche and I was choosing to crouch in the corner of one small room.
Discovering my two giant pillars of wellness, sobriety and clean eating have given me access to the other rooms in the very essence of my being. I have spent the last year wandering timidly but gratefully through the places in my soul that I had disconnected with alcohol. Just like my dream I have been dumbfounded that all along I was an astoundingly rich and supremely happy spiritual being.
I believe that Carl Jung was right when he called the big dreams the forgotten language of God.
One of the first gifts sobriety delivers is the gift of sleep. I do not think I can even recall one dream in the last year. Dreams are completely off my radar at the moment. It was an extraordinary gift to recall a dream from my past and understand what my subconscious was trying to tell me. I am sorry I could not understand it sooner, I was disconnected from my soul and was wandering lost and aimless. The meaning could not make itself known to me because I was too disconnected.
The memory and meaning of this dream is unexpected and delightful. I believe that Carl Jung was right when he called the big dreams the forgotten language of God. We need to be rooted deep within ourselves to understand the language but if we care to listen, the stage is set.
Quinoa Salad: Journey to wellness
This is one of those salads that need not be relegated to a side dish.
Servings
Prep time
Cook time
Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked, cooled Quinoa
- 6 carrots – or a bunch of baby carrots if you can get them
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp organic butter (optional)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp nigella seeds
- ½ cup almonds – chopped (activated preferably)
- ¼ cup Goji berries
- ¼ cup fresh coriander – torn
- 1 kg plain Greek yoghurt
- Zest and juice of one lemon
- 1 medium size red chili
- 2 garlic cloves – pounded in mortar and pestle
- ½ tsp cumin seeds – pounded in mortar and pestle
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Method
- To make the labneh, place the yoghurt in the center of a large square of muslin (I used a clean tea towel). Gather the sides up and tie with string or fix with a rubber band. Suspend the bundle over a jug or bowl. I found the best way to do this was to tie the ball to a wooden spoon and rest the spoon on a tall jug. You need enough room in the bowl for the whey to drip down. Place in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours or overnight.
- Cut the carrots length ways and then cut each length in to 3. Place in a bowl and toss with olive oil, nigella and cumin seeds, salt and pepper. Transfer to a roasting dish and dot with the butter. Bake in a moderate to hot oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until tender. Allow to cool.
- To make the dressing, chop the lemon zest and add to a bowl with the juice. Add the garlic, chili and cumin and slowly whisk in the olive oil.
- To assemble the salad, layer the ingredients over the base of the quinoa reserving the labneh to break in to pieces over the top. Drizzle the dressing over the salad or serve on the side.
Tried this recipe? Mention @wellbeing_magazine or tag #wbrecipe!
