Quinoa With Mint Pesto and Spring Greens

Spring Awakening

The bees have been buzzing around my firebush, the bluejays and mockingbirds are warbling and trilling … and dive-bombing. This weekend, as I was planting new tomatoes and herbs out back, two squirrels chased each other around and around our oak tree. They tore through the seed and nut mix I put out for the birds, exalting in the choicest bits. They spun their tails like lariats. I was just wondering if they were doing the squirrel mating dance when indeed, they began mating.

This was my first glimpse of squirrel sex, and I can tell you it’s inspiring and athletic. Having sex and scampering up a tree at the same time requires a degree of multitasking I have yet to achieve. At one point, the male toppled from the female, plummeted off the oak tree and landed on the white bird palm below. Happily, it’s a palm with broad fronds. He bounced, as though landing on a trampoline. Dignity unscathed, the squirrel bounced, high-tailed right back up and got to it.

Afterward — how familiar — the male fell asleep. I’ve never seen a squirrel sleep before. But this one just made himself at home, curled up on a branch, in plain sight if you knew where to look, and crashed out for half an hour. The female circled him. Perhaps I’m projecting here, but she seemed to try to nudge him — Really? No talk? No cuddle?

Guys. What can you do?

Still, the squirrels have been doing what comes naturally. So have the birds. They swoop at me fearlessly when I’m anywhere near their nests, where their clutches of eggs are. Birds. Bees. Squirrels. Sex. Add it up.

I do not live in some magical wonderland, I live in an urban area, and if that much libidinal impulse can muscle its way into city living, it’s a sure sign of spring. As I say in my book, “Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith and What to Eat for Dinner,” spring “is when life tells you yes.”

We might package Passover and Easter tidily with other things, with a little “Next year in Jerusalem” here and “He is risen” there, but at their heart, both celebrate spring the season of love, of desire and blossoming. Before there was formal religion, there were birds, bees, squirrels, and sex.

at this time of new beginning, of regeneration, consider listening to the animals. Don’t eat them. Share on X

“God in heaven, there’s nothing like nature,” as Molly Bloom says in James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

Here’s my favorite bit from Job:

But ask the animals and they will teach you,
Or the birds of the air, and they will tell you,
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you…
Which of all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.

The bible says we are precious, with a bit of the divine in us all. So at this time of new beginning, of regeneration, consider listening to the animals. Don’t eat them. The animals will teach us. The earth will tell us. We just have to listen.

Qinoa with Mint Pesto and Spring Greens

Quinoa With Mint Pesto and Spring Greens

Although kosher and vegan aren’t always the same thing, Rabbi Frank and his family are happily both. Now is the only time it’s a challenge “because of the vastly limited vegan fare that is kosher for Passover,” he says. Quinoa saves the day in this bright, springy and kosher for Passover main course salad.

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Ingredients

  

• 1-1/2 cups quinoa rinsed*
• 3 cups water or vegetable broth
• 1 cup cilantro leaves
• 1 cup mint leaves
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 4 stalks celery with leaves chopped
• 1 bunch arugula
• 1 bunch spinach

Instructions

 

• Bring vegetable broth or water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add quinoa. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid and has sprung their little endosperm tails. Fluff with a fork and set aside to cool.
• In a food processor, briefly pulse cilantro, mint, garlic and walnuts till they form a great, green paste.
• Drizzle in olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Add lemon juice and sea salt and pepper to taste.
• Toss quinoa with 3 tablespoons of mint pesto. Reserve the remaining pesto (it keeps covered and refrigerated for several days). Quinoa may be made a day ahead at this point and kept covered and refrigerated. Remove from the refrigerator 1 hour before serving, to bring out best flavor.
• Just before serving, toss quinoa with chopped celery, arugula and spinach. Add another dollop or two of pesto, if desired.

Notes

*Rinsing rids the quinoa of saponins, the ancient grain’s natural, protective bitter coating.