Spectacular Simple Salad

This salad is easy to prepare and packed with flavor. It makes a great single serving using ingredients that you may have had left over from dinner. You don’t have to worry to add a whole lot of dressing because the flavor combinations blend so well together that all I add is a drizzle of olive oil and about a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, a little salt and pepper and it’s done!

dsc_0335_1

I usually plan on making this salad for lunch the day after I’ve roasted chicken and there is just one serving left over. If I have made a chickpea soup and have left over chickpeas, I use those, but I always keep a package of precooked garbanzo beans in my pantry just in case I want them in salad. I usually buy organic packaged beans from The Fig Food Company. It’s available at most grocery stores, but you can use which ever you have available. I make the quinoa just before preparing my salad because I love the warm quinoa mixed in with the cool greens, but you can make it ahead to save some time.

Ingredients: (for one serving)

2 handfuls of fresh arugula (Organic Girl)
2-3 Tbsp cooked chickpeas (rinsed)
2/3 cup roasted chicken, cut in cubes (or substitute for a poached egg)
1 Tbsp pumpkin seeds (you can substitute for any other nut or seed you prefer)
1/2 a haas avocado (cubed)
1 Roma tomato (diced)
2 Tbsp cooked red, organic-gluten free quinoa
shaved fresh Parmesan cheese, about 1 Tbsp
olive oil
white wine vinegar
salt & fresh ground pepper

Instructions:

Cook the quinoa according to the package directions. Prepare before hand and store in the refrigerator, or make it just before preparing you salad.
Layer the salad beginning with the arugula, then add chicken, chick peas, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, place the avocado on one side and place the quinoa on the opposite side. Add the shaved Parmesan over the top. If substituting the chicken with a poached egg, add the poached egg on top.
Sprinkle with salt and fresh pepper. Drizzle with about 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar, and olive oil.

I roast chicken in several ways. You will find some recipes here on my blog, however this chicken is a simple roasted chicken. See ingredients and instructions below:

4 bone in chicken breast (with skin still on)
olive oil
salt & fresh ground pepper
garlic powder
ground cloves
dried thyme leaves
dried parsley
juice of two lemons
1/4 cup dry white wine

Drizzle a olive oil in your roasting pan. Add the chicken breast side down. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the next 5 ingredients. Turn the breasts over and do the same to the other side. You will be roasting the chicken with the meat side up and the rib side down.
Place in a preheated oven (convection roast–if you’re oven has that feature) at 400º. roast for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, lower the temperature of the oven to 325º, remove the chicken from the oven and drizzle the juice of two lemons over the tops allowing it to run down into the pan and add the white wine.
Return the pan to the oven and roast for another 30 minutes. Allow it to sit for 5 minutes before removing the bone or serving. Reserve any drippings to drizzle over the meat.