The '30g' Salad

No, it's not a solitary, meagre 30g of salad, but what I thought I might rather catchily call a '30g' salad if, you guessed it, I used 30g of all the ingredients. As you'll see, though, it didn't quite work like that, partly because 30g of chick peas just seemed to measily, but I managed a pretty delicious lunch based on 30g or multiples thereof.

And yes, I am trying to lose some weight, and yes, along with the rest of the world, I'm regretting the excesses of Christmas. My clothes are getting too tight, and frankly, I need to shed a few pounds because I can't afford to buy new clothes. Also, there's a small matter of a 25 year school reunion coming up. 25 years. Since I left school (if it was 25 years since I'd started school, I wouldn't be feeling so positively old about it all). And while I am perfectly happy with who I am & what I look like (mostly) these days, I have a definite sense of impending assessment. I know that it absolutely shouldn't matter one jot what my erstwhile classmates think of me these days - but deep down (actually, not that deep down), I do.

There's also the small matter of aging (as evidenced by the 25 year reunion issue) and the fact that I want to remain healthy and fit for a good long while - and no one else is going to do that for me.

So while I'm not jumping on any particular dietary bandwagon (been there, done that, mostly failed miserably), I'm trying to eat a bit better, embrace the leafy greens in my life. Count a few calories and do more exercise. Lock down the peanut butter. 

Salad can be a bit tedious, truth be told, and so I've had to re-approach the subject with a bit of imagination. Of course, salad doesn't have to mean 'leaves', but I am quite fond of leaves provided they are punchy in terms of flavour and texture. I love good watercress - used to eat armfuls of it in Hampshire where it's native and readily available. Rocket is also something I'm partial to, and I'm looking forward to the summer to get some of our own salad growing again. In the meantime, I'm always on the look out for other interesting leaves. Kale is very much the leaf of the moment, and Florette Salad are producing baby kale as a new leaf, and have a website for lots of interesting baby kale recipes to try out - leafy greens are so good for you and if they pack a flavour punch too as I suspect a good baby kale leaf should, well that's pretty much sold it to me.

Anyway, I couldn't find any baby kale out here on the edge of the western world (the supply chain obviously hasn't got this far yet!), so I made this salad with watercress, spinach and rocket which is one of my favourite combos. As & when baby kale hits Cardigan (or we get some growing in the garden) I'll try it in this. Chick peas are one of my favourite pulses, and a bit of tuna fish is good for a protein hit. And do check out the pomegranate molasses in the dressing!

Just a little note - the dressing is for a much larger bowlful of salad - possibly for 4 people, I'd say, while the salad ingredients here are for one. So use about 3 tsp of the dressing for your plateful of salad and save the rest for another lunchtime.

And if you were interested, or following the 5:2 diet, this plateful comes to 240 calories. Not bad.

'30g' Salad

For the salad
30g bagged watercress, spinach and rocket salad - or use a combination of your favourite leaves
30g sliced raw mushroom
30g sliced raw red pepper
60g drained chick peas
60g (drained weight) tuna in spring water

For the dressing
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp pomegranate molasses
1 tsp harissa paste
1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Combine the salad ingredients on a plate or in a bowl, and put any leftovers in the fridge straight away in appropriate storage containers to prevent more 'accidentally' slipping on to your plate.

Stir together the dressing ingredients.

Drizzle about 3 tsp of the dressing over your plateful of salad.

Consume.

By the way, this doesn't mean that there won't be any more cake here, there just might be a bit less. At least until after 28th February...


This post was sponsored by Florette Salad