I love to cook, but I’m a lazy cook. My preference – toss everything into one salad bowl or one pan. Tonight, it was a can of chickpeas, kale, lemon zest, pine-nuts, fresh mint and chili. The lemon zest and chili make this meal and fortunately they are ingredients most of us have on hand.
If you’re one of my clients reading this, you know that I limit carbohydrates unless it’s after a work-out. This is a perfect post-workout meal. The chickpeas contain 15% protein to help repair the worked-out muscles. The carbohydrates from the chickpeas help restore the depleted glycogen levels and enable the amino acids from the protein to be transported into the muscle cells for repair. Kale adds the phytonutrients and antioxidants which expedite recovery by decreasing inflammation while the pine-nuts act as a natural appetite suppressant thanks to their pinolenic oil. The mint, lemon and chili just taste good…
Ingredients
- 1 x can of chickpeas, drained
- coconut oil
- kale leaves, torn
- mint leaves, torn
- 1/2 lemon for lemon zest
- pinch chili flakes
- sea salt
Directions:
- Heat a cast iron pan. Melt coconut oil. Add chickpeas and kale and toss for 60 seconds
- Throw in the fresh mint, zest of 1/2 lemon and add chili and sea salt for flavor. Cook for 30 seconds
- Serve either on it’s own or as a side dish to roast lamb or Moroccan-spiced halibut
Options – I used what was in my refrigerator at the time, but you could use spinach, swiss chard or dandelion greens as an alternative to the kale.
