Summer Glow Salad

This is just the kind of early summer recipe I adore since it straddles easily those days that vacillate between being very warm and deceptively chilly – and we’ve had a few of those recently. I am looking straight down the lens at summer at the moment and currently very much enjoying this kind of food.

Yes, it’s a salad, but the hot-spiced chickpeas give this recipe a delicious warm twist. It contains fruit, veggies, nuts and feta to provide you body with a well-balanced, nutritious meal.

If you wish to make it a vegan meal, replace the feta with some tofu (or simply leave it out).

SUMMER GLOW SALAD

Ingredients

METRIC/US

1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped

1 apple, cored and chopped (I used Pink Lady)

2 tbsp lemon juice

low-fat cooking spray or mist

400 g/14 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

40 g/generous ¼ cup whole almonds

¼ tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp dried chilli flakes

½ tsp ground cumin

80 g/3 oz mixed salad leaves

2 cooked beetroot/beets (vacuum-packed not in vinegar), chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

salt and freshly ground black pepper

50 g/2 oz light feta cheese, crumbled

Method

Toss the pear and apple in half of the lemon juice and set aside.
Spritz a frying pan with low-fat cooking spray or mist, heat, add the chick peas and cook over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the almonds, turmeric, chilli flakes and cumin, mixing well. Cook gently for 2-3 minutes, stirring often and then allow to cool.
Share the salad leaves, beetroot/beets and chickpea mixture between two (or more) serving plates. Scatter the pear and apple chunks on top.
Mix the oil with the remaining lemon juice, mustard and salt and pepper to taste to make a dressing. Drizzle over the salads.
Serve sprinkled with the crumbled feta cheese.

SERVES 2

WLS PORTION: ½

V suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans (see intro)

CALORIES PER PORTION: 463

PROTEIN: 21 g

CARBOHYDRATE: 39.5 g

FAT: 24.2 g

Image courtesy of http://www.beautifulcountrybeautifulfruit.com