Stuffed Zucchini

I got some beautiful globe zucchini @ "my" farm, Stillman's the other day and decided to stuff 'em!

Over the weekend I stopped by the Marblehead Farmer's Market and got some of the first, local corn of the season (as well as local cherries and tomatoes). I used the corn for the stuffing, along with the tomatoes, avocado, grated beets, snap peas, sprouted quinoa, and lime juice.

Let's talk sprouting quinoa. Quinoa is an amazing seed that everyone should be eating. It can be sprouted and it can be steamed. It is contains all the essential amino acids that the body needs to ingest (as opposed to producing itself). It is also alkaline forming, meaning it will not cause your body to become acidic; acidic bodies are more prone to getting illnesses, while those more alkaline are known to have less illness.
If you are going to sprout quinoa, make sure you know the source from where you are getting it. I buy raw, sproutable quinoa. If you get the quinoa in the box or from the bins @ Whole Foods, be sure to watch it closely as it may mold over more quickly.
You can purchase the raw, sproutable quinoa from Raw Food Naturals.

To sprout the quinoa, soak it for a minimum of 3 hrs. Sometimes I just put it up to soak overnight because its easier to just set it and forget it.
After the soak, give it a healthy rinse with water and then it will start to sprout. The sprouting time is very quick and you can see the tail form as soon as 8 hrs in. I like to sprout it in a fine mesh strainer that I leave by the sink. After the first rinse, let it sit, then give it another rinse 8 hrs later. Let it go overnight and the next morning, rinse again. It should be ready to eat now, but you can let it go longer if you'd like. After the 2nd day I would suggest putting it in a glass container and put in the fridge. It will keep for about a day more and that's it. I have learned to sprout only what I can eat in a day or so because the shelf life is so short.
Here's the quinoa after about a day :

When I was ready to stuff the zucchinis, I first hollowed them out:
I brushed the inside of the zukes with a nice coating of cold pressed olive oil, and a gave them a sprinkle of salt as well.
I then took the mixture I described above and stuffed the zukes with it. Here's a pic before I mixed in the sprouted quinoa:

I dehydrated them at 105 degrees for about 12 hrs.
So, they were pretty good. I think that they could have gone a bit longer in order to soften up the zucchini a bit more. They were just very deep and stuffed pretty much all the way, so dehydration was not even throughout the entire zucchini. I will make this again using regular zucchini and I think they'll probably "cook" through a bit more evenly.

Get out and enjoy the local bounty!!!
Eat something raw today!