I cannot abide boring, dull, colourless salads!!! Honestly, why on earth do the general public think that ‘healthy’, ‘diet’ food has to consist of an iceberg salad and a few slices of cucumber and tomato?!
Image courtesy of itakejoy.com
When my boyfriend and I came back from our American road-trip somewhat heavier and somewhat sick of overindulgence, I decided to go straight back to Slimming World and get on the healthy eating bandwagon ahead of my hip replacement surgery. One of the first dishes I made was this rather successful salad, inspired by the amazing, inventive and mouth watering salads we experienced on our holiday, albeit a little more waistline friendly!
Although this recipe has rather a lot of ingredients, it is not at all complicated and is more about assembly rather than cooking so give it a try!
Mexican Chicken Salad
Serves 4
4 x skinless chicken breasts
1 x chicken stock cube
1 x tbsp paprika
Salt and Pepper
1 x red onion
1 x red chilli
1 x tin chopped tomatoes
Garlic flakes
1 x tbsp chopped coriander
Lime Juice
1 x red/orange/yellow pepper
Half a cucumber
1 x avocado
1 x bag of mixed leaves
1 x tin sweetcorn
1 x tin black eyed beans/pinto beans
120g cheddar cheese, grated
Half fat soured cream
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Crumble the stock cube and mix together with the paprika and seasoning. Score the chicken breasts and rub a liberal amount of the spice mix into each one. Place in an oven proof dish and bake for approximately 20 minutes until each breast is cooked through.
2. Meanwhile, make the tomato salsa. Finely dice half of the red onion and all of the red chilli. Add to a bowl with the tin of chopped tomatoes, a few shakes of garlic flakes, the chopped coriander and seasoning. Add lime juice to taste, mix thoroughly and set aside.
3. Cut the remaining red onion into thin strips along with the pepper. Dice the cucumber and avocado. Grate the cheddar.
4. Divide the bag of lettuce between four plates. Scatter over the sliced red onion and pepper, as well as the cucumber and avocado.
5. Drain the sweetcorn and beans and mix together. Spoon over the salad then top with the salsa.
6. Add the cheddar and a few tablespoons of sour cream to each plate.
7. Finally, remove the chicken from the oven and slice each breast on the diagonal. Add to the top of each plate.
I adore how colourful and eye-catching this salad is! Although it may look rather naughty, it features a good variety of vegetables, a lot of protein from the pulses and chicken, calcium from the cheese and healthy fat from the avocado. This dish is a crowd pleaser and is popular with those who may not be too keen on ‘salad’! It is also very filling and a great main meal to have in the summer as it does not involve slaving away over a hot stove and evokes memories of exotic holidays in sunnier spots! Enjoy!
In relation to Slimming World, this recipe is packed full of speed and super speed ingredients and is a perfect food optimising dish! The cheddar is a healthy extra A choice, half fat sour cream is usually around 1 syn per tablespoon (brand dependant) and avocado works out at about 1 syn per 10g. I find that a quarter of a small avocado is usually about 3.5 syns. This dish can easily be made vegetarian by omitting the chicken and wheat free by omitting the chicken stock cube.
