Celery Salad with Brazil Nuts

GET
4 celery sticks
5 Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa)
1 garlic clove
Oil, lemon

Do
Clean vegetables. String celery sticks and chop them finely. Mash garlic and add oil and lemon to the dressing. Slice the Brazil nuts very thinly. Add celery, nuts and mix with the dressing. Let it rest covered for more than 30 min.

The Brazil nut grows in Amazonian forests. They do not grow in mono-culture plantations. "Brazil nut trees produce fruit almost exclusively in pristine forests"  (source) Local people collect these nuts in the rainy season.
Just as the southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) distributes Australian rainforest fruit and nuts,  the agouti is active in the seed dispersal in the Amazon of the Brazil nut.

"The production of Brazil nuts more than halved between 1970 and 1980, apparently because of deforestation. .. Trees remaining in the vast cattle ranches of Pará and Acre are neglected and dying." (source)

One can of course take any local nut, like macadamias...

Salad goes with
Chickpea Capsicum Casserole

Chickpea Capsicum Casserole

GET

Main Dish
4 cups of cooked chickpeas
5 capsicums, green
2 leeks
2 onions
2 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Vegetable stock, hot
Herbs: lemon thyme, sage

Topping
4 Tsp. Macadamia paste
4 Tsp. Tahini
3 garlic cloves, mashed
2 Tsp. Olive oil

Do
Wash and chop the vegetables. Fry the onions and the capsicums until they are 'golden'. Add the leek and the tomatoes. Cook for a while, then add some hot stock, the cooked chickpeas, garlic and chopped herbs. Cover and let it simmer for approx. 30 min. There should be very little liquid left.

Preheat the oven. Mix the topping. Place chickpea mixture into a casserole. Distribute the topping evenly and heat for 1 hr. at 180 °C

Serve with
Celery Salad with Brazil nuts