Believe it or not, until this year I had never had fiddleheads before. What!? This is shocking to me considering my excessive love of veggies. I would often see fiddleheads in stores, mean to look up a recipe to try them out and before I knew it they were gone! But not this year.
Luckily for me, Mama Earth Organics had my back and put fiddleheads in my weekly bin recently so I could finally try them out! I am so glad I got a chance to experiment with them and I will definitely be making sure I get my hands on them every year. If you want to try out some organic fiddleheads, I highly recommend Mama Earth. They were the ones who recently gave away a free bin of organic fruits and veggies to a lucky Nourished Sweetly reader and if you tell them you heard about them through Nourished Sweetly you’ll get $15 off your first order. That could mean a whole lot of free fiddleheads!
This dish is so flavourful, nourishing and satisfying. It’s dairy-free, vegan, gluten-free and all-round allergy-friendly! That’s my kind of recipe! If you happen to decide to try out this recipe once fiddleheads are out of season I’m sure chopped asparagus would sub in quite nicely. Now, on to the food!
Pesto Quinoa with Fiddleheads and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 small red onion, finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1-1/2 cups fiddleheads, thoroughly rinsed and trimmed
- 2-1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced or quartered
- 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained from oil and finely chopped
- 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds, toasted*
- 1 batch dairy-free pesto
Directions:
- Place quinoa and broth in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and let cook until all broth has been absorbed. Fluff cooked quinoa with a fork.
- In the meantime, heat olive oil and garlic in a pan over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add red onion, fiddleheads and mushrooms and cook until tender — around 15-20 minutes.
- Add cooked quinoa and pesto to the veggies and stir to combine.
- Finally, add sun-dried tomatoes and pumpkin seeds and toss.
- Serve warm or cold
*Note on the pumpkin seeds: You can skip the toasting to save time but it does add a lot of flavour. To toast, simply spread pumpkin seeds on a frying pan and place over medium heat. Shake the pan every minute to re-disperse until seeds start to brown — about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.