This is a super easy but very yummy recipe I did the other day. I did’t really have much things in the house, so I worked with the ingredients I got, and it turned as a wonderful and filling salad. It is a great option for lunch, as it is light, but the chickpeas will make you full. The spices will warm you up as well, so it is perfect for this time of the year.

I love adding sun-dried tomatoes to my salads, they add that crunchy, salty and kind of meaty flavour to a light, green salad. They are rich in protein and fiber and are a good source of potassium too. One cup of sun-dried tomatoes provides 23 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin C and 16 percent of vitamin A, so you have lots of antioxidants in this salad as well.

I regularly mix up the preparation of spinach (cooked vs raw) to get the various nutrients in it. When consuming raw spinach you get the vitamin C and folate from the spinach, as they are destroyed by heat. It is also a great source of vitamins A and K. I like to add pumpkin seeds to my salads as they give an additional crunch and nutritional boost for they are rich in many minerals. The chickpeas add the needed protein and fiber to make this salad filling.

So here is what you will need to prepare this salad:

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

• 200 gr fresh spinach
• 80 gr of sun dried tomatoes (about two handfuls). Make sure you get the sun dried tomatoes in a pack, not the ones in jar, that are filled with oil.
• 1 jar of chickpeas (about 300 gr)
• 80 gr of raw cashews
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 avocado (optional)
• handful of pumpkin seeds
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper
• wheat germ for decoration

Method:

1. Wash the spinach and chop it into long stripes
2. Chop the sun dried tomatoes into very small cubes and add it to the spinach
3. Rinse the chickpeas and place them in a pan with a little bit of oil. Add the cumin, coriander and cayenne pepper and fry them until they become darker and look crunchy.
4. Add the fried chickpeas to the spinach and sun dried tomatoes.
5. In the same pan add the cashew nuts and let them roast for a little until they become a bit brown and then add them to the salad as well.
6. Chop the avocado into cubes and add it to the salad.
7. Pour in the lemon juice and olive oil, salt and pepper and mix well. You do not need to add a lot of salt, as the sun dried tomatoes are already salty.
8. Add the pumpkin seeds and wheat germ and serve.

Enjoy!