Quinoa Pumpkin Cauldron

This quinoa filled pumpkin cauldron is a great centre piece for a Halloween family dinner.

Indgredients:
1 organic pumpkin
100g organic quinoa (soaked or sprouted)
Half an organic butternut squash
1 organic courgette
Handful organic spinach
Half an organic onion
2 cloves organic garlic
1 low sodium organic veg stock cube (I use kilo)
1 tsp ground turmeric

I always soak quinoa for a minimum of 30 minutes (up to 8 hours) before cooking, or up to 2 days rinsing at 8 hour intervals to sprout. Why soak quinoa? All grains, nuts and seeds have natural enzyme inhibitors which are removed or depleted by soaking, making the enzymes and nutrients more readily available during digestion. Soaking grains also removes some starch.

So on that note soak the quinoa in fresh clean water for a few hours, then rinse and allow to simmer in twice it’s volume of water with the stock cube and turmeric for 10-12 minutes until it has little tails.
Steam the squash for about 10 minutes and then cut into cubes.
Steam the courgette and spinach for about 5 minutes.
Slice the onion and press the garlic.

Cut off the top of the pumpkin and remove all of the seeds and pulp (these can be saved to make a tasty snack!). Carve out some of the flesh to add to the quinoa and veg.

Strain the quinoa once ready and add in the squash, pumpkin, spinach, courgette, onion and garlic. Mix all ingredients well and then spoon into the centre of the pumpkin.

Place on a baking tray and roast for roughly 30 minutes; the time will vary depending on the size of your cauldron!

I filled an orange pumpkin with white quinoa and a green one with sprouted red quinoa!