Wondering what to make for Dinner this week? Well thanks to our Amazing Spa it Girl contributor and Nutritionist Lola Berry we have the Perfect Recipe for you:
Poached Chicken Salad with maple-roasted pumpkin, feta and pepitas from her book The Happy Cookbook. It’s Easy to Make; Healthy; Fresh and Tastes so good.
If you want to feel happy this week then try making this (here is how):
Ingredients You Will Need:
2 skinless chicken breast fillets
½ teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, smashed
½ teaspoon peppercorns
2 mega handfuls of rocket,
washed and dried
100 g (½ cup) goat’s feta,
broken into chunks
1 tablespoon maple syrup
3 tablespoons extra-virgin
olive oil
Maple-roasted pumpkin
300 g (2 cups) roughly
chopped pumpkin
2 tablespoons coconut oil,
melted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
30 g (¼ cup) pepitas
(pumpkin seeds)
salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
How to Make it:
1. For the roasted pumpkin, preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the pumpkin chunks onto a baking tray and drizzle over the melted coconut oil and maple syrup, sprinkle with the pepitas and season. Roast for 20 minutes, or until the pumpkin softens; the bigger the chunks, the longer it will take to cook. When it’s cooked, leave it to cool.
2. Place the chicken breasts in a pot, sprinkle with salt, garlic and peppercorns, then pour in enough water to cover the chicken by about 3 cm. Put the pot over a medium–high heat, and bring to the boil. You’ll notice some white stuff come off the chicken – this used to freak me out but it’s totally fi ne, you can scrape it off if you want to use this water as chicken stock later on for soup, but if not just leave it in (I do).
3. When the water comes to the boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes. You can tell the chicken’s cooked by pulling the thickest bit apart – it should be white the whole way through. Another trick is to look at the juices – you don’t want them to be pink, they should be clear.
4. When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the poaching liquid and place it on a chopping board to cool, then shred it for a rustic feel. Set aside.
5. To assemble your salad, in a large bowl put your rocket, the roasted pumpkin, crumbled feta and pepitas, season and toss it all about (gently!), then pop your shredded chicken on top and give it just a tiny drizzle of maple syrup and a nice glug of olive oil to finish.
The Happy Cookbook by Lola Berry is published by Plum, RRP $34.99, is out now (look on the book shelves).