Spicy Semolina? When I first saw this recipe, I was reminded of school desserts, like lumpy semolina served with a teaspoon of jam. It was truly awful and the memory of it almost put me off trying this way of eating semolina. I am glad I tried it, as it makes a hearty, warming and filling breakfast ideal for cold days. Like cous-cous and pasta, semolina is made from Durum wheat. For most people, this wheat is easier to digest than the wheat flour used to make bread. Give it a try—I’m sure you too will be pleasantly surprised!

Ingredients for Semolina with great cardamom

For one portion

• 1 rounded teaspoon of ghee or coconut oil
• 3 rounded dessertspoons of semolina
• 200 ml Rice milk
• 2–6 green cardamom pods*  – remove seeds and grind them with mortar and pestle
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 dried fig chopped into thin slices
• sprinkle of pumpkin seeds
• sprinkle of sunflower seeds
• 4 half pecan or walnuts
• tiny (very tiny!) drizzle of maple syrup

METHOD

Melt the ghee or coconut oil in a small saucepan. Sizzle the spices. Add the semolina and stir well. Cook for just 1 minute. Add all the rice milk. Stir and cook for another 2–3 minutes until the semolina has thickened up. Pour semolina into a bowl. Place the nuts on top of the semolina, then the seeds, followed by the goji berries and finally the tiniest drizzle of maple syrup.

* When you slice open a cardamom pod, you never know whether you’ll find one seed or as many as 6. They are sometimes brown and sometimes black – but that doesn’t matter. If you open the first 2 pods and there is only one seed inside, open a few more. Using 6 pods with lots of seeds inside won’t ruin the dish either – it will just give a slightly stronger flavour. In time you will get to know how much you like.

Eat Well—Be Well 🙂