The Get Healthy Go Vegan Cookbook: Quinoa & Carrot Salad

People have been telling me I have the best luck lately. I don’t know why. I mean, I guess, considering I won us a trip to Italy and our wedding invitations in the same week, but given some recent injuries, I feel like the unluckiest person on earth. And then I won again and I’m feeling like my luck is back, because this prize is one that will last me a long time: The Get Healthy, Go Vegan cookbook by Neal Barnard and Robyn Webb! I won this cookbook on a fun Twitter contest from VeganHope a few weeks ago and on Friday night received my brand new cookbook in the mail. (Note: for all of you social media skeptics out there, I won all three of these contests through blogging and twitter. Wahoo!)

To be honest, I’m not a cookbook kinda gal. I love reading recipes more than gossip magazines, but can’t be bothered by books in my kitchen. If I want a recipe, I google it. Or go to EatingWell.com. The handful of cookbooks I own, I rarely open. When I cook, my recipes are written on scrap pieces of paper, or I’ll go back and forth between the kitchen and my computer to check a recipe online while cooking. But this book, The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook, has earned a spot in my kitchen and it will be opened. In fact, it already has!

I flipped through the cookbook around 6pm on Friday evening, and by 7pm, I had already started boiling the water for dinner to make the Quinoa and Carrot Salad recipe. It is rare this happens. Usually I stew over a recipe for a few days before I get around to making it, or shopping for it, but for this one, I was ready to go. I get a lot of satisfaction from finding a recipe with ingredients I already have on hand. Shouldn’t be too hard since Funk and I constantly over-buy at the grocery store, but still.

I was even more excited about this cookbook because I’m honored to have gotten to know one of the authors, Robyn Webb, over the past few months through blogging and twitter. She even helped us plan our trip to Italy! And gave me permission to reprint this incredibly flavorful recipe for Quinoa and Carrot Salad from the book:

Source: booksamillion.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 pounds carrots, thinly sliced
• Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
• 1 1/2 teaspoons agave nectar
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 pinches cayenne pepper
• Kosher or sea salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

1. Rinse quinoa in a fine sieve under running water for about 1 minute. Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Pour in the quinoa and return to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring 2 quarts water to a boil in a large saucepan. Drop in the carrots and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the lemon juice, agave nectar, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne, salt, and black pepper. Add the quinoa, carrots, and raisins. Toss. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Makes 4 servings. Per serving: 273 calories, 3g fat, 7.8g protein, 56.6g carbs, 8.2g fiber

These are a few of my favorite things: Quinoa, raisins, cinnamon, cumin. This recipe combined them all perfectly! I made some slight edits to the recipe: I used red quinoa, honey from Shirley’s bees instead of agave, and closer to 1 cup of raisins since I love ‘em so much. Even if you’re not vegan, this cookbook is packed with plant-based recipes without any funky, hard-to-find ingredients. Go ahead, get this cookbook.

In other news:

• The Food Should Taste Good giveaway winner is Janna from Janna’s Keeping it Real! Congrats Janna – you’ll looooove these chips. Email me your mailing address so we can get these out to you ASAP!
• I made Mama Pea’s Cookie Dough Lara Sarahbars last night and they’re a-ma-zing. Now I don’t feel the need to rush to Whole Foods and wait (along with probably every single food blogger in Boston) for the delivery of Cookie Dough Lara Bars to arrive! Make these bars.