Hey there,
First off, apologies for the delay. So I have still been making salads, but I
haven’t had time to post them. So here
is the first one, and I will post the other tomorrow.
This is a modification of a Weight Watchers Salad. Black Beans and Chickpeas provide the protein
for this one, and I added lettuce and arugula to the original recipe. The dressing is very tangy, and reasonable
light, relying more on lime juice than oil as a base.
Someone asked me about how I construct my salads, so I guess
I will address that. I am dependent on
my kitchen scale. I measure out the
ingredients that I have, and based on the quantity of protein, I determine the
number of salads I am going to make; so if I have 12 ounces of chicken, I am
going to turn that into 4 salads (because 3 oz is a serving of chicken;
sometimes I might stretch that into six depending on what else is going into
the salad and how many are needed for the week). I then weigh everything, and divide by the
number of salads. I basically kind of
wing it with things like tomatoes. If I
cut up a pint of tomatoes, and I have 300 grams, and am making 6 salads, I just
scoop out 50 grams at a time, and add that to each jar. It is approximate, but I would say that more
jars end up even than not.
This salad required very little prep and was nice and
quick. I thought it was very refreshing and
would make very few changes; mostly I would add the chopped cilantro INTO the
dressing rather than having it on the top of the salad. And I did resist adding cheese to this salad,
and though it does not need it, I think it would be really good. I also thought that the cumin flavor might
have been a little heavy, but my mom disagreed.
I did use fresh squeezed lime juice (three limes-worth), and
I decided to try something different. I
have had some issues with my avocadoes turning, so I poured off what I needed
for the dressing, and then used the rest to coat the diced avocado to try to
prevent them from turning, and it actually worked pretty well.
Recipe:
Makes 8 jars
Dressing:
3 cloves of garlic pressed
½ cup fresh lime juice
3T olive oil
3t ground cumin
1t crushed red pepper flakes
1t salt
4 cups cherry tomatoes halved
2- 15.5 oz cans black beans rinsed and drained
15 oz (one can) chick peas rinsed and drained
½ red onion chopped
2 avocadoes cubed
1 head romaine lettuce chopped
1 head green leaf lettuce chopped
1 bunch arugula
3 T cilantro chopped
Directions:
1. Mix up dressing in a salad shaker and distribute
equally into the prepared jars.
2. Drain and rinse black beans and chick peas3. Assemble salad: dressing, tomatoes, black beans, chickpeas, onions, lettuce, arugula, cilantro.
Enjoy!
~The Maven
