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My son Mikah loves, loves, loves lentil sprouts! He got it from my dad. When my mom and dad go on road trips, my dad keeps his sprouts going. He makes stops to rinse and drain sprouts just like he used to make potty stops for us when we were growing up.

I remember vividly the day Mikah fell in love with lentil sprouts. We were in San Fransisco visiting my sister and my parents were there, too. My dad had his bag of sprouts along (of course). He sat on the front steps munching them. Mikah was maybe 3 or 4, something like that. He said, “What’s that, Sido?” (Sido is grandfather in Arabic.) Of course Sido shared. And that was the end of that. Or rather, the beginning, of Mikah’s love for sprouts — especially lentil.

Mikah has been wanting sprouts lately, but I haven’t been getting them going. So he started them himself about a week ago, and he’s been rinsing and caring for them daily. And making our dinner salads with them. (He’s 11.) Here’s his recipe. We hope you enjoy it! (Also check out Erin’s Lentil Slaw, plus two other recipes for sprouted lentils.)

Mikah’s Lentil Sprout Salad

• 4 cups lentil sprouts (directions are here or taught in Fundamentals eCourse)
• 1/8 red onion, finely diced or thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup sliced black olives
• other diced veggies, as you desire — like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers
• 1 clove garlic, crushed or 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup crumbled raw cheese — feta is really good!
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
• pinch black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil or 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped basil
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Toss all ingredients together and serve.

Do you like lentil sprouts? What do you make with them?

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When the warmer weather settles in — which it hasn’t quite here, still raining — I start making lots of cold grain salads. My favorite grain to use is quinoa. The salads are a satisfying, yet light and cool, main dish and can boast of including virtually anything you’ve got on hand.

We attended a Memorial Day picnic on Monday and I hemmed and hawed all weekend about what to take. See, I usually always take a quinoa salad and I thought maybe I should take something different for a change. But by Sunday night, true to form, I was rinsing and soaking the quinoa anyway.

We arrived at the picnic on Monday, the quinoa salad in hand, and one friend commented that she thought about bringing a quinoa salad but didn’t because she figured I was going to. Another friend said she had been looking forward to the quinoa salad I was sure to bring. They got me there. I guess I’ll stop fighting it and always bring one. People depend on it, see?

Spring Quinoa Salad

This is about half the amount I usually make, whether for gatherings or just for us. I like to have plenty to share and/or plenty of leftovers.

• 4 cups soaked, cooked, and cooled quinoa (see grain soaking and cooking instructions here)
• 1 to 2 cups soaked, cooked, and cooled pinto beans (see bean soaking and cooking instructions here)
• 1 to 2 cups cooked, cold chicken, diced (see how to cook whole chickens in a crockpot here)
• 1/4 red onion, quartered and sliced thinly
• 1 to 2 cups spinach*, coarsely chopped
• 6 to 8 radishes, sliced thinly (not pictured)
• handful fresh basil, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup raw cheese, crumbled or diced (I used the no-tech Middle Eastern cheese in the Cultured Dairy & Basic Cheese eCourse)
• 1/2 cup+ extra virgin olive oil
• 2 to 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or lemon juice (optional)
• sea salt and pepper, to taste

Toss all ingredients together in a big bowl. Use more or less of any of them. Adjust seasonings. Give the flavors some time to mingle, in the refrigerator or at cool room temperature. Enjoy!

*If eating on a regular basis, spinach should be lightly steamed to reduce oxalic acid. But occasionally, we eat it raw.

Be sure to bookmark my garden quinoa salad, featuring deeper summer veggies. When the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers are out, there’s nothing like it! Speaking of gardens, you can pop over to Such Treasures to read my garden update.

Do you make cold grain salads? What do you put in them?

I shared this post in Simple Lives Thursday and Pennywise Platter Thursday.

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We are very excited to be gardening this year! Not on our place, but at friends’. When I went there early this week for planning, she sent me home with a box full of beautiful rainbow chard.

To be honest, I have never served dark leafy greens much — and the last time was so long ago that I didn’t know whether my family would care for it this time. But they did like it, and very much! We ate this easy side dish with two dinners, and there was still chard to feed Gracie, our Jersey.

The best method for eating and preparing dark leafy greens — such as chard, spinach and beet greens — is a light steaming. When raw, these vegetables contain oxalic acid which blocks calcium and iron absorption, and light cooking serves to neutralize some of the oxalic acid while retaining the vitamins and minerals.

I save the addition of feta for when the steamed chard has cooled somewhat — so the beneficial organisms in my raw feta cheese don’t die. (Next week, the feta cheese lesson goes up in the Cultured Dairy & Basic Cheese eCourse.)

Feta and Chard

• 7 to 9 large leaves of rainbow chard – washed, dried and cut up (even stems)
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• sea salt, pepper and dried, powdered garlic
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (preferably raw) — learn how to make your own in the Cultured Dairy & Basic Cheese eCourse

Steam the chard until just wilted, yet still colorful. Discard the cooking water (it contains the oxalic acid) and transfer the chard to a serving bowl. Drizzle on melted butter. Sprinkle with seasonings. Toss and adjust seasonings to taste. When cooled, toss with feta cheese. Serve and enjoy!

How do you serve dark leafy greens?

This post is shared with the Chard: Seasonal Recipe Round-Up, right here at gnowfglins.com.

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My family surprised me by liking traditional, lacto-fermented sauerkraut — the straight-up kind as taught in our class on traditional cooking. They’re surprising me more with their love for the two variations: kimchi (or kimchee), the Korean sauerkraut; and tsukemono, the Japanese sauerkraut.

Growing up, I hated kimchi. Probably because of the red chili in it. I much prefer sour over spicy, any day! But I like my homemade kimchi. It is not too spicy and I love how good it is for us, if made traditionally using lacto-fermentation. (I’ve never had tsukemono before and I like it the best of any sauerkraut; you can see my adaptation of it in this week’s menu plan.)

I like bigger pieces of hand-choppped cabbage in my sauerkrauts, but I also like the quicker fermentation and more even texture that comes from using a food processor. You decide which you want to do — both are good.

This is an adaptation of the recipe in Nourishing Traditions on page 94. Makes 1 quart (or a bit more).

Ingredients

• 1 head Napa or savoy cabbage, cored and shredded
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 1 cup of shredded carrots
• 1 tablespoon fresh, grated ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes
• 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon whey

Chop/shred cabbage, carrots, green onions, ginger and garlic by hand or with a food processor. Combine all ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl. Cover with a tea towel and leave to sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour while the salt helps pull the juices out of the veggies.

Pound a few times with a potato masher or meat hammer (or kraut pounder) to make sure it is getting juicy. Leave for another 1/2 hour if desired, or proceed.

Transfer ingredients to a clean quart-size, wide mouth jar. Press down firmly so that liquid comes to the top of the mixture. Leave 1” space at the top of the jar. Put on lid and band and screw tightly.

Allow to ferment at room temperature for three to seven days. In the first 24 hours, open the jar and press down firmly on the ingredients a few times to make sure the brine is fully covering the mixture (it will continue to be released over time).

Fermentation may proceed faster at very warm temperatures. Burp jar daily, even keeping the jar on a towel to catch seeping liquids. Skim off any mold or fuzz that develops on top (everything beneath the brine should be fine).

The mixture will be bubbly, and the vegetables will soften. Stop the fermentation when you like the flavor and texture. (We like ours best at 5 to 7 days.) Transfer to the refrigerator or cool storage. Repack carefully each time you serve. Will keep several weeks in the refrigerator.

Serve alongside main dish chicken, turkey, beef, or ham. Serve with eggs for breakfast. Enjoy!

Have you had kimchi before? Do you like it? What’s your favorite variation of sauerkraut?

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday and Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Donielle is our hostess today for the salad course of the real food progressive dinner. Be sure to visit her post for a great selection of whole food salads for all your holiday gatherings, big or small.

For my contribution, I’m sharing this collection of our favorite salads. I couldn’t leave any out, they’re all SO good! Let me know if you try any of them. And remember, there are lots more yummy salads over at Donielle’s today, including her luscious-looking Spelt Berry and Red Fruit Salad.

Erin’s Smoked Salmon and Rice Salad

Green Bean Salad

Probiotic Potato Salad

Apple Salad

Quinoa Garden Salad

Mediterranean Cucumber-Tomato-Mint Salad

Cucumber Yogurt/Kefir Salad

Enjoy! This post is part of the real food progressive dinner: Whole Foods for the Holidays.

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And here’s the third seasonal salad I promised. The prior salads mainly featured cucumbers: Cucumber Kefir/Yogurt Salad and Mediterranean Cucumber-Tomato-Mint Salad.

This salad offers a just a few more seasonal treats, along with cold cooked quinoa. Isn’t it colorful? And it is oh-so-delicious. Adding chicken and cheese — or how about some diced hard-boiled eggs? — turns it into a main dish. A very easy meal, I’d say!

I make this salad using the dump method. Have I not shared this method yet? You dump a bunch of ingredients in a biiiiggggg bowl, and then mix. Taste, adjust, and mix some more.

Quinoa Garden Salad

can feature the entire garden — and makes quite a bit

• a few cucumbers, diced (peeled if desired)
• a few bell peppers, diced
• a few tomatoes, diced (using Romas keeps them firm longer)
• a few carrots, shredded
• an onion, or half, diced
• a few cloves of garlic, crushed
• a few sprigs of herbs, chopped (or use pinches of dried)
• a hunk of raw cheese, diced
• a few handfuls of cooked chicken, diced
• 3 to 5 cups of soaked and cooked quinoa (soaking and cooking whole grains)
• extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• a drizzle of sesame oil (or toasted), to taste
• sea salt and pepper, to taste
• apple cider vinegar, coconut vinegar, or lemon juice, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a big bowl. Mix well, but gently. Taste and adjust seasonings. Chill or serve immediately. Chill leftovers.

Now, don’t be scared away by having to soak and cook the quinoa ahead of time. Nothing scary about it! (But if you need some handholding, check out the Fundamentals eCourse.)

Let’s say you want to eat this salad tomorrow night. Tonight, rinse about 3 cups of quinoa under running water for 2 minutes. Put it in a pot with 6 warm cups of water and 6 tablespoons of some acid (apple cider vinegar, Kombucha, kefir, yogurt, etc.). Cover the pot, and let it sit out for a minimum of 7 hours, but probably until tomorrow morning. Then put the pot on the stove and cook the quinoa, by bringing it to a boil, then turning it down to a simmer, covered. It will probably cook in 10 to 20 minutes. Turn off the heat. Let it cool. Chill it. Then tomorrow afternoon, dump it into the bowl with all the other ingredients. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

This salad is an example of the cold grain salads I make often, especially for busy summer work days and weekends. I make a huge bowlful (double what you see below) and we enjoy some with all our family meals for a few days, taking some meals off to keep from getting bored.

I thought you all would enjoy seeing the visitors in my picture!

Interested other cold grain salads? Check out Erin’s colorful and tasty smoked salmon and rice salad. And Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship uses my favorite grain, spelt, in her cold spelt salad. I haven’t tried whole spelt berries in a grain salad yet, but since her family loves that salad, it’s on my list.

What else would you add to this salad? What other veggies are dying to get dumped into the bowl, too?

I’m sharing this post in my Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival. Visit this link to what others have been cooking in their GNOWFGLINS kitchens! I’m also sharing it with Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, and Pennywise Platter Thursday.

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We don’t get enough of cucumber season. Probably because we don’t yet have a garden. So when the cucumbers and tomatoes are in season at the Farmers’ Market, I do go a little crazy. Can you blame me?

We eat one of three cucumber and/or tomato salads just about every day. I already shared one with you — the cucumber yogurt/kefir salad — and this post includes another. If you’re counting, that means I still have one more to show you.

Mediterranean Cucumber-Tomato-Mint Salad

Even though the salad pictured doesn’t include feta cheese, I do add it whenever I can — my homemade feta is a raw, cultured food, making this a probiotic dish. Using one of the raw vinegars or Kombucha also adds beneficial organisms.

• a couple of garden cucumbers, peeled and diced (or not peeled, up to you)
• a couple of vine-ripe tomatoes
• 1/2 an onion, diced
• feta cheese (optional)
• crushed garlic (optional)
• sea salt and pepper, to taste
• organic extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• fresh lemon juice, to taste (or raw apple cider vinegar, coconut vinegar, or Kombucha)
• dried mint, a few generous pinches (more if fresh)

Toss all ingredients together in a salad bowl. Easy-peasy! Best eaten when fresh, although this does keep for a day or so in the refrigerator.

For those participating in our Real Food Nutrition and Health study, head over to this post to grab the discussion questions for Chapter 3. Kristen Michaelis, the author of the book we’re studying, just announced the opening of her eCourse that corresponds with the book. My kids and I signed up so we can supplement our reading of the book with her videos and the other tools she offers.

What are your favorite seasonal salads? Are you loading up on anything while the gettins’ good?

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Nothing says summer to me more than crisp, cool, cucumber salads. They remind me of my Middle Eastern heritage and favorite growing-up foods. Cucumber-yogurt salad was a staple of my childhood.

In my house, we have kefir around, not yogurt. In the past, I’ve only eaten this salad with a yogurt base. But, I like it a little bit better with kefir! The kefir’s effervescent and more tart qualities combine with the garlic, salt and crunch of cukes for a tasty dish.

You can use either plain kefir or plain yogurt, preferably with active cultures. The beneficial organisms make this salad a delicious and easy probiotic addition to any summer meal.

If using kefir instead of yogurt, you might use less kefir or more cucumbers to account for the kefir being more thin than yogurt.

Khyar bi Laban

Arabic for “cucumbers with yogurt”

• 2 to 3 large cucumbers
• 2 to 3 cloves of garlic
• sea salt to taste, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon
• 1 quart of plain kefir or plain yogurt
• dried mint

Wash, peel and dice the cucumbers. Peel the cloves of garlic and mash together with the salt (I used a mortar and pestle). Combine cucumbers, mashed garlic and salt, and kefir or yogurt in a medium size bowl. Mix. Sprinkle on dried mint and mix in. Taste to adjust mint and salt amounts. Chill, or serve and enjoy!

We make kefir in the Fundamentals eCourse. Please join us to learn how to make this tasty, beneficial cultured food!

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Green beans are in season! How about for you? When I get green beans, I make this salad. It couldn’t be more simple, and it tastes amazing. I could only get one pound of green beans at the Farmer’s Market, so my salad’s size was pitiful. We each could have eaten five times what I made. I suggest using four or five pounds of green beans if you can get them. Might as well. You’ll like this!

You’ll want to make this salad several hours before you plan to serve it. This allows all the flavors to mingle together. It really does make a difference.

The recipe is written for only 1 pound, so you can easily scale up no matter the quantity.

• 1 pound green beans, preferably fresh, local and in season
• 2 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 to 2 garlic cloves, minced
• sea salt and pepper

Snap off the ends of the beans and break the beans into 2″ long pieces. Wash.

Fill a pot with water enough to cook all the beans, about 4 cups (I’m guessing). Add 1 tablespoon of sea salt to the water. Bring to boil. Add the beans and cook them for 5 minutes only. Remove from heat while they’re bright green and still crisp. Do NOT overcook. Rinse the beans in a colander under cool water to stop the cooking.

Put beans in salad bowl and toss with garlic, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more oil, salt or pepper as desired.

Cover the bowl tightly and let sit out at room temperature for several hours. Chill or serve at room temperature. Please do refrigerate the leftovers.

Don’t forget! Tomorrow is Tuesday Twister, Wednesday we’re covering probiotic dinners, and Thursday is Simple Lives Thursday. See you all then!

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This salad is delicious, flexible, and easy. And it’s really refreshing on 100 degree days, or even mild spring days. I served it on a bed of tender salad greens, with a generously buttered piece of sourdough bread. The added lacto-fermented salsa (given to us by Christina) confers many probiotic benefits and makes the salad taste amazing. I added diced raw cheese for beneficial organisms, too. Enjoy!

Probiotic Chicken Salad

• leftover chicken, about 2 cups — crockpot chicken is always moist and tender
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup lacto-fermented salsa
• 1/4 cup of diced raw cheese (I used queso fresco)
• few tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh herbs — parsley and cilantro are my favorites
• generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
• splash of raw apple cider vinegar or coconut vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Toss all together in a bowl. Chill or serve immediately. You can also make chicken salad with lacto-fermented mayonnaise instead of salsa for the same benefit and great taste.

Other Ideas Probiotic Lunch Ideas

• Egg salad or salmon salad sandwiches (using LF mayo and/or raw cheese)
• Erin’s sprouted lentil slaw using my soft raw cheese salad dressing and/or cubed of raw cheese
• Pickled salmon (pictured, from Nourishing Traditions page 241) with sprouted crackers and raw cheese
• a side of any lacto-fermented chutney, relish, or pickles

What Ideas Do You Have?

Please visit the Probiotics: Every Day — Lunches post to add your ideas for eating probiotics with lunch. I look forward to what you’ll share!