Spring Salad Series
Shaved Beetroot and Shredded Chicken Salad with Quinoa and Spiced Cumin Yoghurt.
Recently we’ve been experiencing a croissant craving. Now, we don’t usually get immense food cravings as we eat a pretty balanced diet, incorporating all food groups and tune into what our bodies need on a daily basis. For some reason however, we’ve been really wanting to indulge in the buttery-ness and crispness of a freshly baked croissant. We’re thinking it’s the fact that we leave for europe in two months time (omg!) in combination with our desire to visit our favourite bakery in Melbourne – Tivoli Road Bakery. Literally the best bakery. We absolutely love everything about it. Mmm their smoked trout on rye is to die for. As well as their fruit toast (apparently, we’re yet to try it)
So last night we decided that this morning we’d make the long over due visit to our favourite bakery and indulge in the buttery-ness and crispness of their famous croissants.
Best Decision Ever.
After our delicious breakfast we stopped by the markets and bought some fresh deli sicilian olives, goats feta and organic grass fed lamb straps (for dinner tonight!)
With the beetroots, chicken and quinoa that we already had in the fridge, we put together this fun, italian inspired spring salad. To go with our french inspired breakfast of course.
Ingredients (Serves two as a main dish)
-3 small beetroots
– 6 leaves of rainbow chard
-1 cup of pre cooked quinoa (we make big batched and leave in the fridge)
– Half a punnet of strawberries
-1 chicken breast (poached and then shredded with a fork)
– 10 sicilian olives
– 2 – 3 tablespoons of full fat greek yoghurt
– 1 teaspoon of cumin (can use less if you find cumin too strong)
-1 teaspoon of tahini
– A few leaves of flat parsley
-Himalayan salt and pepper to taste
-1 teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees celsius. Whilst you’re waiting for the oven to warm up, leave the beetroots whole and cover them with aluminium foil. Finely chop your rainbow chard and layer evenly on two plates.
2. When the oven is ready, place the beetroots on the middle rack and bake for about half an hour.
3. As the beetroots are in the oven, heat up a saucepan of water on the stove with a tad of salt and bring to the boil. As you’re waiting for the water, you can prep your chicken by dicing up the breast into generous sized pieces. (You can also poach the chicken whole, however this will take you more time)
4. When the water is boiling, pop in your chicken. It will take about 6-8 minutes to poach (depending on the size of your pieces). It is important to keep a close eye on it as you don’t want it to over cook!
5. As the beetroots are in the oven and the chicken is poaching, heat up your quinoa on the stove (ours was pre-cooked so we just had to quickly re-heat) and start to prep your yoghurt. Grab a small bowl and scoop in two to three tablespoons of full fat yoghurt. Add your cumin, tahini and pepper and mix together. Set aside. You can also slice your strawberries either in halves or quarters.
6. The chicken should be ready by now so remove from the stove and drain. Poached chicken should be extremely tender so shredding with a fork should be relatively easy. Basically just ‘stroke’ the pieces with your fork so they almost rip apart. (Sorry that’s a little hard to explain). Set the chicken aside on a plate
7. Remove the beetroots from the oven and test whether you can insert a knife through the middle. If you can they are ready to be finely shaved with either a sharp nice or a large grater. Finely shave the beetroot and place half onto of the rainbow chard that you have already placed on the plates.
8. Evenly distribute the quinoa onto the two plates, alternating with beetroot, shredded chicken, sicilian olives and strawberries. You’re basically layering your ingredients.
9. Now top with a dollop of your yoghurt that you set aside just moments ago and garnish with himalayan salt, pepper and parsley. You can also drizzle with some olive oil if you wish!
10. EAT
We hope you enjoy it! Please let us know what you think!
Oh and also, head over to Tivoli Road Bakery in Melbourne and indulge in one of their croissants.
M + S xx
thymestwo 