Warming Spiced Autumn Quinoa Breakfast Bowl with Walnuts

Ingredients (for two portions):

1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 Tbsp ground linseeds

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves OR 6 whole cloves

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 small apple

1 cup quinoa

3 cups almond milk

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1.     Grate or finely chop a small piece of ginger and dice your apple.

2.     Wash and drain the quinoa. Mix the quinoa with the almond milk in a small pot and add the ginger, cloves, turmeric, cinnamon and apple pieces.

3.     Bring the mixture to a gentle boil. As soon as you see bubbles forming on the top, cover the pot with a lid and reduce the heat of your stove to medium-low. Cook the quinoa for around 20 minutes.

4.     While the quinoa is cooking, chop the walnuts into rough pieces.

5.     As soon as the quinoa has soaked up most of the liquid and has taken on a soft texture, put the pot away from the heat. Do not forget to remove the cloves if you used whole ones!

6.     Stir in the ground linseeds and top your bowl with walnuts

Health benefit ingredient breakdown:

Turmeric – One of the most powerful anti-inflammatory agents within this dish. Incorporating this magnificent spice is proven to protect DNA strands from breaking. It’s healing properties will help you to combat breakouts caused by hormonal imbalance.

Linseeds – Ground linseeds are a superb plant-based source of omega 3 fatty acids, which further reduce inflammation and aid your skin and hair in looking healthy and shiny.

Quinoa – Instead of using regular porridge oats (which are healthy as well, I just tried to limit carbs to make the recipe more PCOS friendly), quinoa provides you with a good amount of protein.

Walnuts – A source of healthy fats and protein. A study revealed that eating nuts will combat insulin spikes, so go ahead and enjoy your guilt-free meal!

Sources:

·      S. S. Percival, J. P. V. Heuvel, C. J. Nieves, C. Montero, A. J.Migliaccio, J. Meadors. Bioavailability of herbs and spices in humans asdetermined by ex vivo inflammatory suppression and DNA strand breaks. J Am CollNutr. 2012 31(4):288 - 294.

·      B. B. Aggarwal, S. C. Gupta, B. Sung. Curcumin: An orally bioavailableblocker of TNF and other pro-inflammatory biomarkers. Br. J. Pharmacol. 2013169(8):1672 - 1692.

·      Burton-Freeman B, Linares A, Hyson D, Kappagoda T. Strawberry modulatesLDL oxidation and postprandial lipemia in response to high-fat meal inoverweight hyperlipidemic men and women. J Am Coll Nutr. 2010 Feb;29(1):46-54.