Hearty soups vs. crunchy salads
I know it is winter and we are all hungry for hearty, warm soups and stews and LOADS of bread to serve it with, but sometimes, in our house, we get tired of it and crave something raw, crunchy and light. Yesterday was a raw, light ‘n crunchy kinda day.
Smoothie Bowls & Salad Bowls
I am sure you have seen the smoothie bowl trend that has been making its rounds. These are just the savoury, vegetable brothers of those sweet, colourful bowls. Do yourself a favour and feast your eyes on these colourful delights – #smoothiebowls.
These attractive bowls of salad are packed with all the goodness of a typical salad, but presented in a different, somewhat neater, more orderly way. It is lovely and green and makes my husband happy!
Millet is a very versatile grain and is a good source of some vital nutrients. You can read more about the health benefits of millet here.
I found this wonderful salad dressing on Happy Hearted Kitchen and made some minor changes to it according to my liking. It is super, super delicious! It would also work well with fish and as a dressing for a cold pasta salad in summer.
Because it wasn’t meat-free Monday, and because my husband has a hard time to go an evening without meat 😉 , I added some roasted chicken breasts to the salad, but it would be a super delicious meat-free Monday dish if you leave out the chicken.
You will see the recipe does not have exact amounts of the vegetables that you need to add to your salad. It really is up to you and the size of the bowls you will use for these individual salads. The same goes for the millet. If you like avocados ridiculously much, add more. If you don’t like celery as much, hardly add any to your salad bowls. I only added a dash of Sriracha to the dressing, but if you would like a spicy dressing just add more. You need to analyse the dressing as you go. If you would like it to be thinner just add more water and blend.
The way you serve these salads are different than what your guests would be used to and is sure to be a hit and would make a pretty Instagram post. 🙂
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 1 Cup Sunflower Seeds (soaked overnight)
- Fresh Mixed Herbs (I used a handful of dill, a handful of Italian parsley, 3 sprigs of mint, 2 teaspoons of thyme)
- Juice and zest of 1 Large Lemon
- 80ml Olive Oil
- 150ml Water
- 2 Garlic Cloves
- 2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
- A Dash of Sriracha
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Salad:
- 2 – 3 Cups Cooked Millet
- 4 Roasted Chicken Breasts
- 2 Ripe Avocados
- Feta
- Radishes
- Celery
- Microherbs of choice
- Fennel Bulbs
- Spring Onions
Instructions
Dressing:
- Mix all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. If you would like a thinner dressing, just add some more water.
Salad:
- Cut all the salad ingredients into smaller pieces, just the way you would like it to be cut.
- Place the millet on a ⅓ of the bowls.
- Place the chicken breast pieces on top of the millet.
- Place all of the salad ingredients in rows next to the millet and the chicken. You can place the ingredients in any sequence.
- Gently spoon a generous serving of salad dressing over the chicken.
- Grind some pepper over the salad dressing.
- The salad bowls are now ready to be served.