Challenge Family Ambassador – Two of my “go to” meals!
# 2
Recovery Salad – By Laura Siddall
This is my other ‘go to’ meal. There’s not even any cooking involved if you don’t want there to be! It lasts a few days too, if kept in the fridge. Although once you’ve tasted it, it’ll be hard to resist going back for seconds and thirds. With this meal, there is also plenty of options to experiment and add in additional ingredients as well.
It’s called the Recovery Salad, but it’s just my everything salad! You’ll see why…
Recovery Salad
Ingredients:
• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and cooked – this also works really well with an ancient mixed grains mix.
• 3 cups loosely packed, finely chopped kale (stems removed) – other leaf varieties also work
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 jalapeno chili pepper, finely chopped – you can include the seeds for an extra bit of spice (and apparently the recipe mentions to wear plastic gloves when handling. Or rather just don’t then go and touch your eyes straight after perhaps!)
• ½ red onion, chopped – ½ to 1 full onion
• ½ cup chopped cilantro leaves – also known as coriander
• 400g (1 can) black beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 ½ cups of cooked black beans) – also other mixed beans work too
• ½ cup toasted pumpkin seeds – also known as pepitas and they don’t have to be toasted, or could be toasted in turmeric.
• ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
• ¾ tsp fine sea salt
• ¼ cup lime juice (3-4 limes)
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 avocado, sliced
Other ingredients to mix in and experiment with
• Broccoli – I like to steam some broccoli and add it in to the mix.
• Brussel sprouts – give these a quick chop and slice and fry up.
• Fennel – slice up ½-1 fennel bulbs.
• Carrots – either raw to add more crunch or cooked, or even grated.
• Sweet potato – I’ve also added chopped and cooked sweet potato.
• Mushrooms –
• Olives – another good addition
• Chicken or steak or even a piece of fish. The chicken or steak can be sliced and cooked and mixed in with the salad. A piece of salmon can be cooked and served on top.
The ‘How to’:
1. In a saucepan over a high heat, bring to the boil the quinoa (often 1:3 ration cups of quinoa to water but check the packaging), and ½ tsp of salt.
2. Reduce the heat to low and a simmer and cover until the quinoa is tender and all the water has been absorbed.
3. Transfer to a large salad bowl, fluff with a fork and set aside to cool.
4. Once cooled (to be honest I never wait), add the kale, red pepper, chili pepper, onion, cilantro, black beans, lime juice, the remaining salt to the quinoa and mix together.
5. If you are adding any other ingredients, make sure they are cooked (or prepped) and simply added to the mix.
6. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve (if needed)
7. It’s that easy!
8. Just before serving top with the avocado slices, pumpkin seeds, and feta – to be honest I just mix the pumpkin seeds and feta into the salad mix, but do serve the avocado on top.
(TIP: If you don’t like the bite or after taste of raw onion, soak the chopped onion in a small bowl of cold water for 10minutes. Then drain and add to the salad.)
(Main recipe taken from Run Fast, Eat Slow. Written by World Class Marathoner and 4x Olympian Shalane Flanagan and chef Elyse Kopecky)
