Salmon Sushi Bowl for 3

However, one meal I've started making for myself recently is a salmon sashimi bowl. It's kinda like a mash-up between a poké bowl and chirashi-zushi, but majoring on the fresh salmon. I only do these on the weekends when I can get to the good fishmonger that sells sashimi-grade fish.

I start by cooking sushi rice, and seasoning it with rice vinegar, mirin, salt, and sugar, before letting it cool. I love how Japanese sushi rice sticks together in delicious little clumps; the texture is divine!  

Sushi Rice

Salmon sushi bowl for 1

I love it because it tastes amazing, is cheaper than buying the equivalent amount of sushi and sashimi at a restaurant (although raw salmon is always going to be a bit of a splurge), and of course you can just use the exact amount and type of toppings that you like. All killer, no filler. (I basically just want salmon, not tuna, or prawns, or tamago or whatever).

It's also definitely an achievable home dish. Proper sushi making is serious business involving years of training, and I wouldn't even bother attempting to make nigiri sushi or maki rolls at home. But this sushi bowl is achievable and forgiving. If you can find a good fishmonger that sells sashimi-grade fish, you're halfway there. (Also, ask them to slice it - they have the sharp knives and the expertise). I love sliced avocados, but if you don't have the patience, then I'm sure that roughly chopped cubes would be equally delicious.

Although I typically make this as a treat-meal for myself, earlier this month I made a big bowl for my mum's birthday lunch. She loves salmon, she loves avocado, and I knew she'd appreciate the pretty slicing and arrangement of the avocado and cucumber! Funnily enough, I decided on this dish a few weeks previously, while my parents were away in Penang. They returned home a few days before Mum's birthday, and in the car ride home from the airport, my dad regaled me with a story of how their favourite hotel lunch buffet had really gone downhill ("jato standard"), as they were no longer serving salmon sashimi for lunch and "they just want to save money and they're definitely going to lose a lot of customers over this, Sarah". (Woohoo, I'd made the perfect choice for the lunch!) I'm pleased to say they loved it!

Salmon sushi bowl for 1

The recipe below is for a large bowl that can serve four people (or three of my family members); scale down to serve fewer people. Enjoy!

Salmon Sushi Bowl
A recipe by Sarah Cooks; Sushi rice recipe from Allrecipes

Ingredients
1 cup sushi rice
1.5 cups water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1.5 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
650 grams sashimi grade raw salmon, sliced
1/2 ripe avocado
1/2 Lebanese cucumber
To serve: soy sauce, pickled ginger, wasabi

Method
Rinse the sushi rice under cold water until the water runs clear. Place the rice in a heavy-based saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid, and add the 1.5 cups of water.
Place the pot on a high heat and bring to the boil. Turn the heat to minimum, clamp on a lid and allow to cook for 20 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked. Allow to cool slightly.
While the rice is cooking, place the rice vinegar, vegetable oil, white sugar and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Set aside and allow to cool.
Pour the vinegar mixture into the rice and stir with a fork until the liquid is evenly distributed. It will seem quite wet but will dry as it cools.
Scoop the rice into a large serving bowl and make the top nice and flat and even.
Place the bowl into the fridge and assemble once the rice is cold.
Peel and finely slice the avocado. Finely slice the cucumber.
Arrange the avocado, cucumber and salmon slices on the rice.
Serve with soy sauce, pickled ginger, and wasabi on the side.
Serves 3-4

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Mexican Lentil Soup with Chipotle Tortilla Chips

Ingredients for Mexican Lentil Soup with Chipotle Tortilla Chips

I also love the bright colours of the ingredients - I'm all about bringing summery brightness into my life through my cooking. Don't you feel cheered up just looking at all those vibrant colours?

The soup is based on a medley of vegetables - carrots, onion, celery, capsicum, tomatoes - spiced up with the warming flavours of garlic, cumin, oregano, smoked paprika and chipotle chilli. Vegetable stock is your liquid, and red lentils add body and protein. It's also easy and quite quick to cook, as the red lentils only take about twenty minutes. In fact, the trickiest part is chopping all the vegetables at the start, but after that you're really just chucking everything into a pot and stirring occasionally.

Mexican Lentil Soup with Chipotle Tortilla Chips

Mexican Lentil Soup with Chipotle Tortilla Chips

Let's talk about the toppings! Fresh lime, fresh coriander, and avocado are a must. I also love a generous dollop of sour cream. (This of course de-veganises the soup; dairy avoiders and vegans replace the sour cream with your favourite non-dairy alternative, or simply leave it out). The last time I made this soup, I also made some chipotle tortilla chips in the air-fryer, and let me tell you, they were out of this world! Total game changer. I had some corn tortillas lying around, so while the soup was simmering, I brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled them with chipotle seasoning. (Another chipotle-based product that's recently become available at my local supermarket! It's a mix of chipotle chilli powder, salt, sugar, and garlic powder. If you can't find it, I'd suggest using a mix of those component ingredients. Or even just salt! They'll still be good). I cut the tortillas into eight wedges each, and then cooked them in the air-fryer for five minutes at 180C. My experiment worked! They came out crispy and hot and so delicious. They were so fab on top of the soup as a crunchy kinda Mexi-crouton, but were also amazing dipped in guacamole as a snack. Give them a go!

Lamb Sausage and Kale Orzo

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I recently came back from a wonderful holiday in sunny Malaysia. It was warm and sunny, and we ate SO much - it was the best! While we were away, daylight savings ended, and Autumn seems to have kicked in properly, so in addition to the usual post-holiday blues, I'm also dealing with the colder weather and early darkness. Blah! I am craving comfort food to the max! This one-pot orzo definitely fits the bill.

Back when I made my Chicken Dinner Meal Prep, I had a huge bunch of gorgeous organic cavolo nero (Tuscan kale) leftover, and I spent most of the following week devising ways to use it up. I'm thrilled to say that this one-pot lamb sausage and kale orzo was one of the results.

I thought that the robust, verdantly green kale would go well with a fennel-studded spicy Italian sausage, so I searched for recipes combining the two ingredients, and found a delicious-looking recipe for One-Pot Orzo with Italian Sausage and Kale on Yay! for Food. At first I was planning to make it exactly as per the recipe just for my dinner (i.e. and not blog it), but when I got to the supermarket I came across these wonderful smelling Greek lamb sausages and I had to have them! (I suppose you could use whatever sausages take your fancy, but I did love the combo of lamb sausages and kale). I also scaled down the recipe to make two servings rather than six and made some other minor adjustments to suit my taste. The full, adapted recipe is below!

So, you start by squeezing the sausage meat from the casing, and sautéing it in a pan with onions, garlic and chilli flakes.

Sautéing the sausage

Then you add the kale and let it wilt down for a bit, before adding orzo pasta.

Orzoooooo

I totally love orzo pasta and need no excuse to cook with it. Nigella's pasta risotto with peas and pancetta from Nigellissima and her meatballs with orzo from At My Table are both favourites of mine. (I'm fairly sure orzo and risoni are the same thing, by the way - pasta in the shape of rice). In this recipe, you stir the orzo to cover it in all the delicious flavourful oils, then pour stock over...

Ready to simmer

...clamp on a lid and let it simmer gently until the stock is absorbed and the orzo is cooked through. Super easy! The final flourish is a handful of grated mozzarella stirred through to get all melty and creamy. (I've made this dish a couple of times now, and always used mozzarella, but as I type this post, I think that feta might be a nice alternative, especially with a lamb sausage).

One-Pot Lamb Sausage & Kale Orzo

I've used a cast iron pan for these photos, but I'd actually suggest using a non-stick frying pan, as some of the little orzo grains caught on the bottom of the pan and were difficult to scoop out.

Meatballs with Vegetable Noodles

So for today's Meal Prep Monday we have... meatballs in tomato sauce with vegetable spaghetti. Ta-dah! I think of it as a wintry version of a desk salad. We've got brightness and freshness in spiralised zucchini and carrot, plus the warmth of meatballs, all slathered in a rich tomato sauce. It's full of vegetables and protein and is low carb - perfect for a desk-bound lunch at work. I'm not sure if it's age or my sedentary office job, but I'm finding myself less and less able or willing to eat big carb-based lunches on the regular. So, standard takeaway options like ramen, rice dishes or sandwiches are just not that appealing to me every day, and I'll usually save those for a once-a-week lunch with colleagues.

But back to the meal prep. I started by spiralising a zucchini and a carrot for the base. (This makes four light lunches; obviously add more if you have a bigger appetite than I do). When you spiralise vegetables you're left with the core of the vegetable which, to be honest, I usually discard, but this time I made sure to use them! I chopped up the zucchini core and the carrot core, and added the zucchini to the meatball mix, and added the carrot core to the tomato sauce. Waste not want not!

Spiralised vegetables and meatball mixture

For the meatballs I used lean pork mince, but obviously use whatever mince you prefer. I mixed them with the chopped zucchini core (a few chopped pieces of carrot fell into the bowl too, no biggie), some chopped parsley, and some grated parmesan before forming them into balls.

Cauliflower Rice Pulao

Hello hello! I am super excited about today's recipe - a wonderfully fragrant and vibrant Indian-style pulao, made with cauliflower instead of rice. I made it as part of an Indian themed meal prep, to accompany some curries, and was so blown away by the pulao that I thought it deserved its own post! It's so easy to make, super tasty, and for those of you who this concerns - low carb, gluten and grain free, vegetarian and vegan. Perhaps a good option if you're trying to even out the excesses of the easter period! (I'll be posting about the whole meal as a Meal Prep Monday soon - keep your eyes peeled!)

Chicken Salad with Peri-Peri Potato Croutons

If you know me, you'll know that I'm obsessed with Nando's. It's a frequent lunch option, I have a loyalty card, I always get my free birthday meal, and I've even exchanged my points for Nando's swag in the past. (In case you're wondering, it was the Nando's pride badges because they are totally me, too cute, and I could not resist!) For me, it's always a quarter chicken and peri-peri chips. (Occasionally corn as the side if I'm trying to be healthy). But either way, the basting is always Extra Hot.

Easy desk salad

Good morning and a hearty welcome to you! Meal Prep Monday post, all ready to go! Today's recipe is a super simple and easy desk salad. We have a base of cos lettuce, some sun-dried tomatoes and feta, topped with a sliced avocado and a hard-boiled egg.

I made this because I'd been in a slight cooking rut, was sick of buying lunches and really wanted to Meal Prep something, even though I didn't have time go out shopping. I literally looked through my fridge and picked whatever I could find that I thought might make a decent meal. I'm glad to say that the result was this delicious salad, full of good fats and protein.

It takes about fifteen minutes all up - and most of the prep can be done while the eggs are boiling and cooling. I was wondering if it might be too simple to share as a recipe here, but I couldn't argue with the taste. And of course, complicated doesn't necessarily mean better! As long as it's tasty, healthy, and nourishing, it definitely deserves a place on Meal Prep Monday.

Just quietly, I'd actually wondered if my Silken Tofu Bowl might be too simple to be a proper recipe here on the blog (You didn't even cook your own rice, Sarah, what kind of Asian are you?), but I actually got some unsolicited feedback from a friend of mine who doesn't cook much, saying she thought the recipe looked great and that she really wanted to make it. So that simple recipe was helpful for her, and I do hope this simple recipe will be useful for you!

Normally I like to prepare my four meal preps for the week all at once on a Sunday. However, the prep time for this is so low that I think it makes more sense to buy all the ingredients at once, and assemble two lunch boxes at a time. This way the avocados are less likely to go really brown, and the lettuce is less likely to get soggy. The recipe below makes enough for two lunches, so buy more if you want to make more lunches throughout the week.

I was also worried they might be a bit light, so I bulked up my lunch with some bliss balls and a little portion of blueberries. I also always forget to eat fruit, so bringing some to work meant that I wouldn't forget! I got the coconut-covered bliss ball as a sample from a catering company, and the peanut butter balls I made from a recipe I found online. I didn't love the peanut butter ball recipe, but I can heartily recommend my peanut butter cookie dough protein balls or my peanut butter chocolate protein balls instead!

Happy Monday everybody! You got this.

Easy Desk Salad
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 x mini cos lettuce
10 sun dried tomatoes in oil, roughly chopped
25 grams feta cheese
1 small avocado
Lemon juice, salt and pepper

Method
Place the eggs into a saucepan of cold water. Place on a medium heat and bring to the boil. Once the water reaches a boil, clamp a lid on and turn off the heat. Allow to sit for 8 minutes, then drain and rinse under cold water. Once cool enough to handle, peel and set aside.
Chop the cos lettuce thinly crossways, and divide between two serving containers.
Top with the sun dried tomatoes and crumble over the feta.
Peel and slice the avocado and divide between the containers. (No joke, I have an avocado-slicing tutorial on my blog). Season with salt and pepper and squeeze lemon juice generously over the avocado.
Sliced the hardboiled egg and arrange over the salad, season the egg with salt and pepper.
If you like, you can drizzle the salad with some extra virgin olive oil, but I think in this case it softens the lettuce too much, and I find there's enough flavour going on already.
Makes 2

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Silken Tofu Rice Bowl

Hey hey! I am so happy to have a new Meal Prep Monday post for you today! I haven't been meal prepping much at all lately - my routine's pretty much gone out the window. As I keep telling you, I've been crazy busy at work, and also had a cold for a little while, plus there's been lots of general changes at work and at home! (It's finally started to calm down at work a little, but instead of getting back to the gym and getting on top of the chores, I've prioritised socialising with friends. I know, I'm a terrible person). I wish I could say that I've been revisiting old meal preps, or resorting to my basic tuna-salad-brown-rice combo, but really I've been buying lunch frequently, and occasionally bringing leftovers if we had any, (and in those cases, it's mainly been Sandra cooking).

However, I got organised last weekend, and I am super pleased with the Meal Prep that I made. We've got a silken tofu rice bowl, with marinated silken tofu, edamame, coleslaw, cucumber, pickled ginger and baby spinach, on a bed of brown rice and quinoa. Boom! Vegetarian! Vegan! Gluten free! High in fibre! Vegetarian protein! Lots of brightly coloured vegetables! Super nourishing and so tasty! We can do this!

I was inspired to make this meal prep from the Macro Bowl on the new Spring/Summer menu at Thr1ve (not sponsored). The other day I needed to buy a quick lunch to be inhaled, alone, at my desk. I wasn't feeling particularly enthused about lunch (I know, weird), there was nothing particular that I was craving, and just needed something to eat, so I figured it may as well be healthy. Well, I picked the Macro Bowl at Thrive (and it happened to come with a free ready-meal that day, wahey!), and I was surprised by just how good it was! It had a brown rice/quinoa base and lots of different vegetables, but the kicker for me was the tofu. The silken tofu came in a soy-based marinade, and it reminded me of my beloved Chinese silken tofu dishes (silken tofu with avocado; silken tofu with century egg) that I like to make for friends and family.

Macro bowl at Thr1ve

So, with that idea as my starting point, I put together my own meal prep for the week. I threw this one together very easily - it looks fancy but is basically an assembly job, and all of the ingredients are available at my local supermarket. (Not all supermarkets stock edamame, but they're usually available at Asian grocers and sit perfectly and patiently in the freezer).

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Instant Cup Noodles

Good morning! Happy Monday to you all! I have a brand new Meal Prep Monday here for your enjoyment. Check it out. Instant Noodles with 5-spice chicken, shiitake mushrooms, wakame seaweed, carrots, bok choy and a hard-boiled egg.

Ingredients

So, a couple of weeks ago, Sandra and I popped into an upmarket faux-Japanese noodle bar for a quick dinner after drinks in the city. I had soba noodles in a dashi broth, with chicken, egg and vegetables. The food wasn't particularly impressive, but it did remind me that back in my uni days, one of my staple meals, both in restaurants and at home, was noodles in dashi broth. This was back when Wagamama was huge, and before ramen became a Thing!

It struck me that a nice bowl of soup noodles, with lots of fresh vegetables in it, would make an excellent meal prep for winter. Obviously having noodles sit in broth overnight is not ideal, as the noodles expand and go soggy, so I thought it would be good to set up the bowls in advance (including dashi stock powder), and just pour boiling water on them before I ate them. Just like instant noodles! Whaaaat!

Four serves!

Now whilst this is a great idea, it certainly wasn't an original one. A quick Google and Pinterest search revealed that many people have had this idea before me! Namely J. Kenji Alt Lopez from The Food Lab, and before him, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Well, it's popular because it's good! Super easy and perfect for meal prep! I used this set of glass lunch bowls with matching lids; I've seen lots of people online do these with mason or killner jars. (So instagrammable).

For my particular bowls, I used par-cooked ramen noodles that come in individual packets and just need a few minutes steeping in boiling water to be cooked through. (The brand of noodles I bought come in "single serves" of 150 grams each, but I found half of the packet to be just the right amount for one serving).  I topped them with a little instant dashi powder, julienned carrots, finely sliced bok choy, soaked-and-sliced shiitake mushrooms, dried wakame seaweed, 5-spice-flavoured grilled chicken, and an egg! I generally prefer soft-boiled eggs with noodle soup, but seeing as these had to last for a few days, I decided to go hard-boiled.

The vegetables don't really cook in the hot water, just soften, so you need to use vegetables that you're happy to eat crunchy. I also found that the meals didn't get piping hot, especially if I'd had the bowls in the fridge all morning (perhaps the hot water tap at my work isn't that hot!) So after covering the meals with hot water and popping the lid on, I gave them a short burst in the microwave to get them properly hot.

I was really pleased with these! I was worried they might be bland, but the combo of dashi powder, shiitake mushrooms and wakame seaweed gave these super umami power. The five-spice powder on the chicken also added flavour to the soup! I found the bowls filling and nourishing, but not heavy. And I loved having lots of different vegetables each lunch! (Wakame, in particular, is supposed to be full of nutrients and inordinately good for you).

Here's a bonus one! I made the bowls on a Sunday evening, and made an extra portion so I could have it for dinner that night. Oishii!

One test bowl

Instant Noodles
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
4 dried shiitake mushrooms
2 eggs
2 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
300 grams cooked ramen noodles
12 grams dashi powder (i.e. 2 sachets)
1 small carrot
1 bunch bok choy
2 teaspoons dried wakame seaweed
2 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
4 heatproof containers with lids

Method
Place the dried shiitake mushrooms into a bowl and cover with boiling water from the kettle. Set aside for 30 minutes to soften. Drain and slice the mushrooms into thin pieces.
Place the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Place over a medium heat and bring to the boil. As soon as it boiled, clamp on a lid and turn the heat off. Leave for exactly 8 minutes, then drain and rinse under cold water. When cool enough to handle, peel and cut in half.
Brush the chicken thighs with vegetable oil and sprinkle with five spice power. Cook in a non stick pan on medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes, turning once, or until cooked through. Set aside and allow to rest. Shred or slice the chicken.
Peel the carrot and cut into matchsticks.
Wash the bok choy and cut crosswise into thin pieces.
Divide the ramen noodles between four serving containers.
Sprinkle 3 grams dashi powder into each container. (I have digital scales, which made this easier, but otherwise just sprinkle roughly half a sachet into each container).
Divide the sliced mushrooms, hardboiled eggs, carrot, bok choy and wakame between the containers. Cover and store in the fridge!
Just before eating, pour 300 millilitres boiling water over your noodle bowl and cover. Allow to sit for 3 minutes. Remove the cover and sprinkle with coriander and spring onions to serve.
Makes 4 servings

Chipotle Chicken Salad

Good morning and a hearty welcome to you! It's Monday and I have a new Meal Prep post for your delectation.

One evening I just could not be bothered cooking but still wanted something reasonably healthy, so I Uber Eats'd a chipotle chicken salad from a local Mexican chain. It was neither great nor terrible, and slightly expensive, but I didn't have to do any dishes and didn't fall into a carb-coma afterwards so overall I'd say it was a win.

However, I couldn't get the idea out of my head that I could make a better salad if I just applied a little effort once I was feeling more energetic. So I did! The next night for dinner, I threw together a salad with lots of fresh raw vegetables, plus corn, roast broccoli, lime juice and coriander. (There were, like, three tiny pieces of roast broccoli in the salad I ordered, and I wanted MORE). I topped the salad with feta and chipotle-marinated chicken. Plus avocado, of course. And it was so good! All the vegetables were so vibrant and tasty, and it was a really nourishing-yet-light meal. Perfect candidate for meal prep!

Home-Made Chipotle Chicken Salad

Feeling energized by my successful salad endeavour, the day after that, I went out and bought more ingredients, whipped out the camera and made four days' worth of those salads for my work lunches. And here we go: chipotle chicken rainbow salad! (I do realise this means I'll have been eating a chipotle chicken salad for six days in a row, but I'm ok with that).

So, the chicken. I found that one large chicken breast was enough for the four bowls - but obviously use more or less depending on your appetite. As a marinade, I used that same Frontera chipotle salsa that I told you about for my last Mexican Meal Prep. I bought it at a local McCoppins gourmet grocer and totally love it, but am sadly not sure where else it would be available in Australia. However, you could use whatever seasoning you want - all that matters is that you enjoy the flavour of it. How about some supermarket taco or burrito seasoning; a hot sauce; maybe whip up some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce; or go real simple with cumin, chilli powder, garlic powder and some olive oil.

Marinated chicken ready for the oven

I cooked the chicken and broccoli at the same time, on different shelves in the oven. For this, you just cut them into florets, drizzle with oil and salt and pepper, and roast.

Roast broccoli

Ok, for my meal prep salads, I decided to bulk them out a little with some black beans. (Black beans are a magical food that somehow are vegetable, carb and protein, all at the same time). Rather than cooking them frijoles negros style, I used a tip I saw on Jamie's Super Foods and popped them in a dry frying pan. They start off like this...

Black Beans

... and then start to go dry and pop and split. They smell great while you're doing this! (Heads up - the pan is murder to clean up afterwards. Your call if you want to try popping them or just use the drained beans as they are).

Black beans, popping

Ok, let's look at the salad component of the salad. We're going for a Mexican vibe with lime juice and spring onions, then finely shredded red cabbage, corn kernels (from a can, I'm not Superwoman), fresh cucumber. tomato and coriander leaves. I love the bright colours! (Iceberg lettuce might be nice if you were eating this straight away, and you'd get that fun Tex Mex / Old El Paso / Taco Bill vibe, but seeing as the point is to eat this salad over a few days, cabbage is a better choice, as it holds up better).

Fresh salad ingredients

Actually, speaking of the corn - if you are feeling energetic you could toast the corn kernels in a dry frying pan to give them a slight smoky BBQ flavour before adding them to the salad. (Less messy than the black beans, I assure you). Or, of course you could barbecue a whole ear of corn before cutting the kernels off. If you are, indeed, Superwoman.

Then it's just a matter of layering all the elements into your bowls or containers. Start with the salad as a base...

Salad base

Then your (popped or not) black beans and feta. (I like feta because it tastes awesome and kinda looks like what I imagine queso fresco looks like, but I reckon regular grated tasty cheese would be nice too - again channeling more of a TexMex vibe).

With feta and black beans

Then chicken and avocado! Yummeh. I prefer sliced, guacamole is the obvious substitute.

Avocado and chicken

I've had people ask me before how I keep avocado from going brown over a few days. Answer - fresh unbruised avocado, lots of lemon or lime juice, air-tight container. Also, I don't mind if the avocado starts going slightly brown by the fourth day. If this bothers you, I'd suggest prepping all the salads at once, but only slicing each portion of avocado the day you eat the salad. Keep the unsliced avocado halves in the fridge in a zip-lock bag to maintain as much freshness as you can. However - when I meal prep, I don't want to be going back to the meals and doing more work throughout the week, I just want them done and dusted! I want to clean the kitchen, get everything out of the way, and then not think about the meals again until I pull them out of the work fridge and then inhale them. (And I must admit, I do like the way it looks when all the four meals are complete and I can take a nice photo of them for the blog or the Insta).

Enjoy!

Chipotle Chicken Rainbow Salad
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
1 large chicken breast, chopped into 2-cm pieces
2-3 tablespoons chipotle salsa (substitute any vaguely Mexican seasoning you like)
1 small head of broccoli, chopped into florets
Olive oil, salt and pepper for roasting the broccoli
1 x 400 gram tin of black beans
2 spring onions, finely chopped
One lime
1/8 red cabbage, shredded
1 x 125 gram tin corn kernels
1 small cucumber, cut into 1/2 cm cubes
1 tomato, cut into small cubes
1 small bunch coriander, finely chopped
80-100 grams feta
1/2 avocado

Method
Preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan forced).
Place the chicken breast pieces in a bowl. Add the chipotle salsa and stir to combine. Allow to marinate in the fridge for an hour if you have time, or just tip straight onto a lined baking tray.
Place the broccoli florets in a separate baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and stir to combine.
Roast both the chicken breast and broccoli in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the broccoli has started to brown and it smells amazing. (Depending on your oven you might need to take one tray out first and/or swap them during the cooking time).
Drain the black beans and toast in a dry frying pan until heated through and some of them have started to pop. Take off the heat and set aside.
Place the chopped spring onions in a large mixing bowl. Squeeze half a lime over and season with salt and pepper.
Add the red cabbage, corn, cucumber, tomato and coriander. Stir to combine.
Divide the salad between four bowls/containers. Crumble the feta over the bowls.
Top with the black beans and chicken pieces.
Finely slice the avocado and divide between the bowls. Squeeze extra lime juice over the avocado to prevent it from browning.
Makes 4 salads