My take on Prezzo's Pollo E Spinaci Salad

For as long as I can remember, I've always been someone who is fairly health conscious and try to lead a well-balanced lifestyle as much as possible. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy the odd treat, as long as everything is in moderation, but recently I've been trying to make healthier lifestyle choices, without having to cut out all that I love.

I'm quite a foodie at heart and love cooking and experimenting with different ingredients, as well as going out for meals. While it’s fine to eat out occasionally the thing that puts me off, is the fact that you don’t know exactly what has gone into your food. For this reason, I have been looking for healthier alternatives to some of my favourite restaurant dishes.

If you read my last post, you'll know that a few months ago I moved to sunny Spain! Now I don’t know if it’s the heat or simply the change in scenery, but since moving here I've been craving healthy food…salads in particular and lots of them! One salad that I've really missed, has got to be Prezzo's ‘Pollo E Spinaci’, one of my all-time faves! Although this dish is probably relatively healthy anyway, the beauty of home cooking is having control over what ingredients go into your food and no hidden nasties! I therefore decided to do my own take on this salad, with a couple of tweaks here and there.

The quantities used, I found to be the perfect amount for 3 adults, but you can obviously adjust this accordingly, depending on the number of people and your appetite!

For the salad you will need:

Ingredients:

Approximately ½ a bag of baby leaf spinach

1 punnet of field mushrooms

½ a red pepper

½ a yellow pepper

1 large chicken breast

1/3 cucumber
1 1/2 avocados

Handful of cherry tomatoes

Sprinkling of cooked quinoa

Honey Mustard Dressing:

80ml Extra virgin olive oil/coconut oil

160ml honey

40ml lemon juice

20ml Dijon style mustard

Pinch of salt

Instructions:

On the whole the preparation for this recipe can be done in any order, but the main thing to bare in mind, is that you want the peppers, mushroom and chicken to still be hot/warm when served.

1. For the first step I decided to wash and cut the peppers in 2 halves.  Next remove the core and seeds, slice into thin strips and set to one side.

2. Wash and cut the ends off the mushrooms. As I was using small field mushrooms, I chose to slice them in half, but you can adjust this depending on the size of the mushrooms and your preferences. Again set to one side.

3. Although the Prezzo salad doesn't contain quinoa, I chose to include it in my recipe for the added health benefits and protein.  Make sure to rinse the quinoa thoroughly and following the cooking instructions on the side of the packet, mine took approximately 20 mins to cook. Once cooked, drain and leave to cool. 

As you only need a sprinkling of quinoa in the salad you don't need to cook a lot, bare in mind that it expands in size quite generously after being cooked. As you can see, I made too much, on the plus side I had some left over for lunch the next day!

4. At this point I decided to make the honey mustard dressing. Now obviously you can buy this ready made in the shops, but as I was going for the healthier option, I decided to make it myself. The dressing was so easy to make and only contained 5 ingredients: Extra virgin olive oil/coconut oil, honey, lemon juice, pinch of salt and Dijon style mustard.  Place all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix until combined...it really is that simple! 

5. The next step is time to prepare the chicken.  I have to say this is the part I dread the most...it's just something about touching raw meat! In fact this is part of the reason I like cooking vegetarian meals the best. You can choose to cut the chicken however you like, it really is down to personal preference, but I chose to slice it into small strips as I found it cooks quickly this way. After doing this place the chicken in a large bowl drizzle with a little sunflower/olive oil making sure all the chicken is covered and season with salt and pepper.

5. Place a griddle pan over medium heat. Once hot, place the chicken strips in the pan and cook for approximately 2 mins each side until they have a chargrilled effect on the outside and are no longer pink when cut in the middle (again you may need to adjust this depending on the size of your chicken pieces).

6. In the meantime place the mushrooms and peppers in a pan and lightly fry until slightly wilted.

7. Prepare the bed for the chicken by lining a bowl with spinach leaves. Next halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the cucumber and avocado and mix into the leaves.

8. Once cooked top with the char-grilled chicken, peppers, mushrooms, a sprinkling of quinoa and drizzle a little honey mustard dressing over the top. As I was cooking this for family I also decided to add a side of home made garlic bread, but I enjoy the salad just as much on its own.