Quinoa Tabbouleh from Dietitian April Rozzo

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 APRIL ROZZO, MS, RDN, LDN SHARES HER WISDOM!

This past weekend, I coordinated a GYN Cancer Wellness Retreat. This is actually the 4th one that Cancer Services has coordinated since getting grant funding from the Athena’s Run 5K that happens here in Winston-Salem each fall.

When the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at the chance to have Shannon and Dave from Wind River, come host the retreat. Each year they plan a variety of topics and speakers. This year we had a drumming workshop with Tam Tam Mandingue Drumming School, Lori Baydush, a pelvic floor Physical Therapist with Urology Partners, a Tai Chi workshop and a nutrition workshop (of course!!).

It was fun to be able to collaborate with April on this. We had planned for the two of us to do alternating sessions, but given time constraints, we decided to just do the session together. It’s a good thing we’re both pretty flexible and easy going. For me, it was really fun to be able to do education with another Oncology Dietitian! She has the job that I used to have at Novant Health Cancer Center, so we work cooperatively but had not had the opportunity to work together before. She’s a blast!!

April chose the above recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh. She said that the original recipe she found here, and then she altered it to include more veggies, mainly by added the coarsely chopped spinach to the dish. The taste test went really well, and everyone thought it was delicious!

Here’s April before the session:

Remember.. there’s no ONE FOOD or food substance that can prevent or cure cancer. These ingredients don’t work independently. They work in the context of consuming lots of plant foods and maintaining regular physical activity.

You might already know about the health benefits of the ingredients to this dish, but just in case, here’s a quick run down!

• Quinoa is a seed that we count as a whole grain. It is a complete protein. Read other articles I’ve written about quinoa here.
• Any time you can add fresh or dried herbs to your dish, like the mint, parsley and green onion in this recipe, you add extra plant nutrients that help your body function. Read my articles about herbs and spices here.
• Tomatoes in this recipe provide lycopene which originally was studied and showed benefit for prostate health. Interestingly, as they tried to tease out where the benefit lies, the AICR has downgraded their evidence rating. Read more here. However, April informed me (actually – she quizzed me!!), that it has also shown benefit for other cancers including lung and endometrial cancers.
• Spinach and leafy greens  are great sources of fiber, which we know has conclusive evidence to reduce risk of colon cancer, but also has lots of other benefits.

Here is the finished product:

YUM!!!

Thanks April for sharing your expertise!

– Julie