Red Bean Basmati Salad with Radish and Cilantro

Hello friends! I know...It's been a while since I posted a new recipe. I promise I have been pouring all of my recipe making and tasting time into my cookbook. It's alot of organizing, writing, and hopefully soon getting into some of the picture taking and testing stages too. All the recipes I want to include are some of my tried and true recipes that I make and share on a more regular basis. They are the ones that I swear by as bringing more hope for this healing journey and beyond that I am trying to share a piece of myself in a very raw and honest way. I am hoping to keep my energy up on this project, so stay tuned :)

So, I hope you are enjoying the first week of summer and finding ways to rest, play and have some enjoyment. Here is a little spring-summer-ish salad recipe I cooked up recently to share with a local community of health-loving friends and now I will share with you in hope to help add a little spice and pungent to your picnic food line-up. This recipe is as much medicine for the damp spring we've been having here in Michigan as much as it is just tasty and nourishing. It has a few pungent components of radish, cilantro, cardamon, cumin and even the red beans. They are all together almost like a summer-salad-version of a kitcheri dish in the Auyvedic food tradition. And, in the Chinese food tradition of eating to help balance your whole system by how each bite and flavor send nourishment to corresponding organs in the body. I am a very 'earthy' person so as this spring has been very wet, damp, swampy, moist, and what ever other words you can use to describe spongy wet weather that barely sees sunshine, then in a sense my body has been holding on to this wetness just like a sponge. I  am chronically a damp earthy person anyways and this means I have to work even more closely with eating foods to help expel the damp and not produce more damp in my digestion and body. I am learning, and like many of us, try and experiment with the plants and foods that might help us thrive and naturally nourish and detox our bodies as a whole.

This recipe is a bunch of those damp-expelling foods into one. It has been an easy helpful dish to pack for a picnic lunch or even share at the potluck. Yes it's flavor and colors may not be on the usual side but sometimes you must look to your food as a healing modality and perhaps an adventure to experience and try new things.

Red Bean Basmati Salad with Radish and Cilantro Recipe
{gluten, dairy, egg, nut, seed, soy and sugar-free}

2 cups of pre-cooked basmati rice, cook it, cool it and have it ready to mix together- I cooked 1 cup of dry basmati rice with a dash of sea salt and a ts. of coconut or avocado oil with the 2 cups of water

2 cups of pre-cooked small red beans (from dry beans or use 1- 15 ounce can of cooked red beans)
Pour the soft cooked beans from the can into a pot to warm with
1/2 ts. of ground cardamon
1/2 ts. of ground coriander
1/4 ts. of ground fennel
1 ts. of ground cumin
1 ts. fresh grated turmeric or 1/2 ts. of dry ground turmeric
1 ts. of fresh grated ginger or 1/2 ts. of dry ground ginger
1/4 ts. of pink sea salt
1/4 ts. of fresh ground black pepper

Cook the beans with all the spices and if needed a drizzle of water to soften them all together. Then let the beans slightly cool and get ready to mix with the rest of the salad

Chop up 3-4 fresh radishes into very tiny pieces and then save a few slices for garnish
Finely chop handful of green onion (1/3 cup chopped) 
Finely chop handful of fresh cilantro (1/3 cup chopped)

In a medium mixing bowl, dump in the cooked basmati, beans with spices and the fresh chopped veggies. Toss together and dress with some radish or cilantro garnish and serve up. It may need a sprinkle of more sea salt or back pepper, but let the flavors speak for themselves. I love how this is so simple and how the spices from the beans truly are the "dressing" of this salad. No need for more.

I hope you give it a try and ENJOY!

Much love and light as always, xoxo