Low-Calorie Living
So you know we had to do a salad. And to be honest I may do another one in this series. I love a good salad, with all the elements; sweet, a bit of spice, salty, crunchy, just all-around perfect bite. This salad is remarkably easy to make, yet it does pack a punch of lovely flavors. If this sounds like something, you’re interested in keep reading for the recipe.
I know a whole lot of people who detest kale. I recently found out about massaging the kale. It works wonders, it basically breaks down the fibers and makes it so much more palatable. I am one of the rare persons who think kale tastes great as is, but it’s even more delicious when massaged. You can massage it with added oil and some lemon, maybe balsamic or honey. However, to cut the calories in this recipe I massaged it plain and then added the dressing in the end.
Let’s talk about these walnuts. They are awesome! They were so flavorful and crunchy. The problem with walnuts is they pack so many calories, almost as many calories as the grilled chicken. But you certainly won’t regret a few tablespoons of these roasted walnuts on the salad. Each bite with the chicken reminded me so much of fried chicken on a salad. So if you like salads topped with fried chicken the bits of crunch walnuts really do mimic the feel and taste when on this grilled chicken salad. Alternatively you could use slivered almonds if you really wanted to cut the calories.
As you can see, I added cheese, yes you can keep the calories down and still have a bit of cheese. Parmesan adds the salty briny flavor component and it has less fat than fetta and cheddar. Add your favorite low-calorie vinaigrette, on average a low-cal vinaigrette, is about 35-40 calories in a tablespoon I used about a tablespoon of dressing on my salad. So the calories will vary the more toppings you add.. Generally speaking, vinaigrettes have fewer calories than creamy dressings so opts for that on your salads to keep calories lower. The star of this dish for me was the walnuts, I could eat a bowl of the walnut all on their own. This is for sure a salad I will make again.
Ingredients (printable recipe)
1-2 bunches kale
Parmesan cheese shavings
For the chicken
2 chicken breast
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon ground allspice
For the walnuts
1 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon honey
¼ teaspoon scotch bonnet pepper sauce
(or hot sauce)
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Clean and slice the whole chicken breast into three pieces horizontally. You should have 6 flat pieces from the two chicken breasts
- season with salt, black pepper, onion powder, allspice
- Combine walnuts, honey, pepper sauce, smoked paprika, salt, and coconut oil make sure all the nuts are coated
- Place walnuts on a lined sheet pan bake in a 350 oven for 10 minutes
- remove from the oven while hot stir to make sure all the melted oil and honey re-coat the nuts and allow it to cool completely, as it cools it gets very crunchy
- Massage the kale until its wilted down and finely chop set aside
- Grill the chicken on a greased grill, they are cut thin so it shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes per side for perfectly cooked juicy chicken breast.
- set the chicken aside and allow it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
- Assemble the salad by laying down a bed of massaged kale topped with your favorite low-calorie vinaigrette, walnuts, chicken, and parmesan shavings.
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