After a short intermission from the world of the web, internet service is back and inaugurated with a simple sunny bowl recipe.  Sweet steamed plantain and dried cranberries, earth rutabaga, grounding grains and an herby lemony sauce to top it all off and make it sing.

Measurements are given per bowl – other than the dressing recipe which makes about 3/4 of a cup: lots to go around and enough to sauce another salad or two besides.  A few tricks to get this to come together quickly, start by getting the grains cooking in a rice cooker.  Then chop and steam the rutabaga, and chop it small so it won’t take forever to cook.  In the last 5 minutes or so of the rutabaga steaming, add the plantain chopped on a diagonal into thick slices.  It’s done when tender and bright yellow throughout.  And for the dressing?  Make it while the rutabaga steams and then decide on bowl temperature depending on the oil you’ve used: warm or room temperature if using flax oil, hot if you use olive.

What you need for the dressing:

• 2 cups chopped fresh basil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons flax or olive oil
• 2″ fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
• 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons water

What you do for the dressing:

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender or Magic Bullet type mixer and process until smooth.

What you need for the bowl:

• 1-1/3 cup cooked grains, warm or hot (a combo of 1 part quinoa, and 1/3 part each of wild rice and buckwheat is particularly fabulous for this bowl – but use what you like or have on hand)
• 2/3 cup steamed rutabaga, warm or hot
• 5 to 7 plantain slices, warm or hot
• 2 tablespoons dried cranberries, apple-juice sweetened preferred
• dressing to taste, cool, recipe follows (3 tablespoons usually does it for me)

What you do for the bowl:

1. Put the grains in the bottom of the bowl.  Place the steamed rutabaga over the grains on one side and the plantain slices on the other; sprinkle the cranberries between the two.  Drizzle with dressing and dig in.