Recipe Collab: Moringa Pesto Toasted Quinoa

Before joining the I Heart Keenwah team a few years ago, and becoming an expert on all things quinoa, our Marketing Manager Natalie worked for a moringa brand and had an equal passion for sharing the remarkable benefits of this often overlooked ingredient. 

Like quinoa, moringa provides complete protein - containing all 9 essential amino acids. It's also rich in iron, calcium, vitamins, and antioxidants, and can be consumed, or applied topically to the skin and hair. 

For this recipe, we teamed up with Kuli Kuli Foods, a brand seeking to grow the moringa supply chain by providing fair, sustainable wages to farmers and women-led coops around the world

Ingredients

• 1 cup I Heart Quinoa Toasted Quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1 Chinese eggplant, sliced thin (1/4 inch)
• 5 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• olive oil
• sea salt

Pesto:

• 0.4oz moringa powder (1 packet Kuli Kuli Pure Moringa Vegetable Powder)
• 1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup green peas
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 Tbs water
• 2 Tbs nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with foil
2. Brush sliced eggplant with olive oil and roast on prepared baking sheet for 30 minutes.
3. While eggplant is roasting, cook Toasted Quinoa according to package instructions (1 part quinoa to to parts water, bring to a boil, simmer on low in a covered pot for 15-20 minutes, fluff with a fork).
4. Allow quinoa to cool (about 15 minutes).
5. Prepare pesto by combining all pesto ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
6. Fold pesto into quinoa until evenly coated.
7. Plate pesto quinoa on serving platter and top with roasted eggplant, cherry tomatoes and a generous sprinkling of flaky sea salt.

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