Recipe for an incredibly filling healthy lunch salad – Chickpeas, kale and millet salad

Do you wonder how to pack a good salad for your lunchbox? Something that won’t get soggy or need laborious prep of washing and drying the salad greens? Or procuring them fresh in the first place?

I have just the idea for you. Most components of this healthy lunch salad can be prepped ahead, and most of them are easily replaceable using what you have in your kitchen. I have calorie counted it for you with macros so if you are on a calorie budgeted diet or on a 5-2 fast diet, you can easily include this in your meal plan without troubling yourself with the numbers.

Taste verdict? I prepared this in the morning, packed it in a plain lunch box (not the thermos kinds) and it was delicious until evening. This lunch box salad is also vegan and gluten free to boot!

So all set for the recipe? Read on…

What do you do when you come back home from a trip? Empty your suitcase, do the laundry, or just push the suitcase under the bed and move on to more important matters?

For me, it is invariably running up to my terrace kitchen garden and taking stock of the surprises it has for me. This time I was away on the Great Tastes 2018 tour of York, Manchester and London for nearly 10 days and I was excited to update myself on the garden situation.

I spotted a glut of shiny purple eggplants and a handful of purple beans. Tuscan kale had grown a few inches taller. Lime bush sporting a few decent sized limes. The gourd vine had borne a lot of pretty yellow flowers. It was heartening to see that the red amaranth roots I had planted after using up the leaves (these were bought) had now sprouted tender red leaves that were perfect in salads.

Get lot more kale recipes from my blog here.

Saving the eggplants for later, I plucked some of the kale, red amaranth, gourd flowers and one lime, to make a hearty healthy lunch salad.

It always helps to soak chickpeas overnight and cook a big batch of them in your pressure cooker or instant pot. This can be used in curries, salads or hummus. Such a lifesaver when you want to cook a healthy meal in a jiffy – this healthy lunch salad is one such example!

I had put a big batch of chickpeas to soak as soon as I came home and used up some in a curry, with enough leftover for a salad. I also had some leftover cooked foxtail millet. That plus the freshly plucked ingredients gave me a salad pretty enough no to eat, and delicious enough to scarf down.

Healthy Lunch Salad – the nutritional info

This healthy lunch salad, entered on MyFitnessPal is 240 calories per serve, yields 2 servings. Fat 10.3 grams, Carbs 28 grams, Protein 6.4 grams and a whopping 8 grams of fibre!

Check out these calorie counted healthy salads:

99 calorie spiralized zucchini salad

100 calorie carrot coriander quinoa salad

{buy}

Steel lunch box as shown in the image

Cajun spice seasoning

Mixed seeds

Healthy Lunch Salad

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Prep Time 20

Total Time 20

Cuisine global vegetarian

Servings 2 servings

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic grated
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 tsp Cajun spice powder or another other spice mix
salt to taste
1/4 cup cooked foxtail millet
1 small bunch kale 15-20 leaves
1/2 cup red amaranth leaves or use any other small sized salad leaves
1 lime
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp mixed seeds (sesame fennel, cumin etc.)
edible flowers for garnish optional

Instructions

To prepare this healthy lunch salad, in a small pan, heat the olive oil and fry the grated garlic on low heat for a few seconds. Add the cooked chickpeas, Cajun spice seasoning, salt and toss well until the flavours coat the chickpeas. Remove and allow to come to room temperature.
Pluck out and wash kale leaves. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add kale leaves. Leave in boiling water for a minute and then refresh in a bowl of iced water to retain bright green colour. Remove from water, squeeze gently and chop it.
Wash and dry the red amaranth leaves.
In a large bowl, add the chickpeas, millet, kale, amaranth and mix well.
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil and lime juice. Season with a pinch of salt as the chickpeas are already salted.
Pack in a lunch box or serve as it is. Tastes good warm or at room temp or cold.

Notes

Use roasted cumin powder instead of Cajun spice seasoning.
Spinach can be used instead of kale.

Use any seeds like toasted seeds sunflower or flaxseeds instead of the seed mix.

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Healthy Lunch Salad – Chickpeas, Kale and Millet {vegan and gluten free}