Wild Rice & Quinoa
Stuffed Baked Apples

This autumn dish is INCREDIBLE! It’s loaded with super healthy pseudograins –wild rice and quinoa, which are high in fiber, protein, trace minerals and vitamins.  The sweetness of the warm, cooked apples contrasts beautifully with the wild rice, quinoa, mushrooms and aromatic sage mixture. 

It is simple to put together, looks great and tastes fantastic.   I am confident that this dish will be a hit at Thanksgiving dinner. 

(adapted from Baked Apple Stuffed with Wild Rice and Quinoa recipe in Vegetarian times mag.)

Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable broth
2 cups water
½ cup wild rice
¼ cup red quinoa
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped (about 7)
¼ cup red onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp chopped fresh Sage
¼ cup dried cranberries
4 medium apples
¼ cup grated sharp cheddar or parmesan cheese (optional)

1.  Preheat oven 350 F.  Bring broth and water to a boil in a saucepan.  Add wild rice, cover and reduce heat to medium-low and cook 50 minutes.
2.  Wash the red quinoa well, strain and stir in with wild rice and cook for another 20 minutes (water should be absorbed and rice and quinoa opened).
3.  Sauté mushrooms and onion in coconut oil for 7 minutes.  Stir in chopped sage and wildrice-quinoa mixture and sauté another 2-3 minutes.  Fold in cranberries.
4.  Halve apples through stem and scoop out core and seeds, leaving ¼ inch thick wall around sides.  Fill apple halves with 1/3 cup rice mixture.  Place in 11x7 inch baking dish and fill dish with 1 cup of water.
5.  Cover and bake 30-35 minutes (apples should be soft, but still sturdy enough to hold in the filling), then remove lid/foil and sprinkle with cheese if you like and cook until crispy (about 5-10 minutes). Serves 8.

Enjoy!

Note:  The wild-rice and quinoa mixture is delicious on its own as well if you don’t prefer to use the apples.  Just bake 15-20 minutes in a casserole dish if want rice mixture on own.  Whenever possible use fresh sage over dried, as it’s superior in flavour.  1 tablespoon of fresh sage equals 1 ½ teaspoons lightly ground or 1 teaspoon powdered sage. 

  Whole Food Sneak Peak:
        Sage

Click on these links and scroll to the bottom to learn about the nutritional benefits of wild rice, quinoa and apples.

Garden Sage belongs to the mint family.  Its botanical name salvia translates to “savior.”  Its leaves are grayish, silver-green in color.  It is lance-shaped with prominent veins running throughout.  They have an earthy, aromatic taste that is simultaneously sweet and bitter.  It is most similar to rosemary. 

Sage has one of the longest histories of use of any herb in cooking and in medicine and his still held in high esteem today as modern day science is just beginning to confirm the uses of sage as a medicine and preservative.  It contains compounds that can keep food preserved and are packed full of powerful antioxidants. 

Some known health benefits of sage include it preventing perspiration (anhidrotic), have blood sugar-lowering effects in diabetics, are an antimicrobial and have been known to dry up the flow of milk during lactation (in high dose medicinal amounts).  Sage tea is an excellent diaphoretic and can help induce a good sweat if you have a fever.

Sage’s most popular use is in turkey stuffing.  It can also be added to breads, soups, most vegetables and legumes.  It is best to add sage near the end of the cooking 
process as it is very delicate and will allow it to retain its maximum essence.