Hi everyone,

I made this fantastic quinoa salad last night and it was delicious. It comes from a website called www.cookingquinoa.net which has tons of great quinoa recipes.

Quinoa is a really healthy, gluten-free, high protein grain that really should feature more in our diets. It contains more calcium than milk and is also really high in magnesium and B vitamins. The Incas called it the "mother grain" because it was such a vital part of their diet.

I think that enjoying the flavour of your food is really important. The more you enjoy it, the better you will digest it and the more nutrients you will absorb. Digestion literally starts when we begin to prepare our meals. The sight and smell of the foods as we are chopping and cooking stimulates the brain and this sends a message to the stomach to start secreting the digestive juices that will digest our food properly. This is called the Cephalic Response and is one of the first things that I work on with people who come to me with digestive issues.

So to stimulate this response, we need to anticipate that our food is going to taste good and this recipe is the perfect way to do that. As you can see from the pic, it looks really good and the taste lives up to that. The dressing is made from lime and coriander, two of my favourite flavours. For me grain dishes can be a little bland so a good dressing is everything.

Try it out, it so healthy. The fibre in the beans, the garlic and the coriander are really good to keep cholesterol levels healthy. This recipe also has a really high amount of raw ingredients which is really good for health. The avocado has lots of healthy oils and is a great PMS food. Coriander is also excellent for blood sugar balance, it's often called the anti-diabetic plant.

Let me know how you get on with it.

Catherine