My raging Saturday consisted of buying vegetables, visiting my Nana, cooking vegetables, going to see an animated Pixar movie with my parents where I then wept when the imaginary friend got forgotten and then coming home and giving myself a wax. It was so raging. I could have joined the party upstairs but instead I put my ear plugs in and went to bed so that I would be well rested for my early morning spin class. Judging by the number of people who liked my look how raging my life is..not post on Facebook it would suggest I am not alone.
We are doing this 21 day Les Mills gym challenge at work hence the vegetables and spin classing. We all had to go in and step on the magical scales that told us that most of our bodies were made up of wobbly fat. My number disturbed me so just as I was coming off the Junk Free June buzz I am back on the bandwagon. I have just over three weeks to reduce my body fat in the name of corporate competitive glory.
People not doing the challenge ask what the prize is for winning. That eternal glory is enough for me oh that and transforming into a babe just in time to wear skimpy Brazilian bikini bottoms when I venture off to South America in late August. Other than that I don't think there is a prize.
In honour of this challenge the last week I have been going hard on the broccoli, steamed kumara and chicken breast. My fridge has 4 massive heads of broccoli, two heads of cauliflower, baby spinach, kumara and a freezer full of individual portions of chicken tenderloins. I know it wont take much time at all for my soul to feel wounded from the lack of cake and repetitive dinner options so I have been exploring my multitude of cookbooks for healthy, well balanced, reasonably low carb meal ideas. I came across this recipe for roast vegetable salad in my Ripe, A fresh Batch book by Angela Redfern.
It was clean, lean and full of protein (once I added chicken to it). Hey I've gotta use up those frozen 'loins, that and I needed another word that rhymed with clean.
Its actually really easy to make and I feel like its a good 'un for the week's lunches. Roast up a big lot of vegies on a Sunday and each night just toss them together with some baby spinach, chicken pieces, coriander and a dollop of the dressing. Wham! You have lunch that doesn't consist of porridge or some unidentified green soup day in and day out. Also the vegetables that this salad calls for are ALL in season at the moment so get amongst.
Spicy Roasted Winter Vegetable Lentil Salad
Adapted from Angela Redfern's Ripe Recipes - A fresh batch
Serves 4 (like hell you are going to share it though)
Salad
1 400g can brown lentils, drained
2 medium sized parsnips, sliced lengthways then into thirds
3 medium sized carrots, sliced lengthways then into thirds
4 fist sized kumara (sweet potato), cut into small wedges
Half a head of cauliflower, cut into florettes
1 small bag baby spinach leaves
1 large handful of fresh coriander leaves
1 teaspoon ground chilli
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
Yoghurt dressing
1 1/2 cups greek yoghurt
Small handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped finely
3 small cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
2 teaspoons curry powder
Salt and pepper
Chicken (optional)
800g chicken tenderloins (or breast cut into chunky strips)
1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground chilli
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees on bake and line a baking tray with baking paper.
To make the roast vegetables, mix together the sweet chilli sauce, olive oil, curry powder, cumin and chilli together in a large bowl. Add in all the chopped kumara, parsnip, carrot and cauliflower and toss to coat in the spice mix. Spread out onto the baking tray then bake for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and starting to brown at the edges. Remove from the oven.
To make the yoghurt dressing just mix together all the ingredients.
To make the chicken, mix together the spices, sweet chilli and water then add the tenderloins and stir to coat, season lightly. In a frying pan set to a medium heat, pan fry the tenderloins until just cooked through. Be careful not to overcook them and dry them out.
To assemble the salad, start by tossing the vegetables in a couple of spoonfuls of the yoghurt dressing. To my plate I started layering on the baby spinach leaves, drained lentils, coriander leaves and roast vegetables then dotting a few blobs of dressing around here and there. Toss the pile of vegetables lightly to gently mix things through. Top the salad with a few tenderloins, a good squeeze of that half lemon and a dollop of yoghurt dressing and serve whilst still warm.
Enjoy x