Our lunch counter at the clinic. What you can't see is the lovely lass I get to share my lunch with on Thursdays. Sorry about the shadow.
Today's salad is a #notsaddesklunch kind of day. I am at the clinic, in between clients, and thought to do the write up on the salad of the day. My aim was to make something under 10 minutes that would use up mainly ingredients in my pantry and stuff in the fridge. Nothing new, nothing fancy, just a simple delicious and nutritious offering that is easy to take to work so that I can enjoy a meal with my colleague while we nosh.
Top left to bottom left, clockwise: milk kefir, garlic, sardines, lightly steamed broccoli, avocado, fuji apple
While I was cooking my veggies for breakfast this morning, I put half a head of broccoli in to steam lightly in order to lessen the goitrogens (thyroid-supportive thing in my case). I always keep a stash of these Raincoast Trading sardines in spring water for days like this; I like these because the cans do not have BPA in the lining, and the fish are stored in simple spring water, there are no additives. Thanks to a former colleague Ray I got turned on to sardines: he said they're the original tuna salad! I tried them and thought well yes now they are. Sardines are lower down the food chain, and much smaller than tuna; the mercury and other heavy metal concentrations in the little guys are significantly lower than that found in Tuna, being a higher-up-on-the-chain kinda fish.
So in the salad bowl went my drained can of sardines. I added in a half an avocado, about 2 tbsp of milk kefir (you could use yogurt or creme fraiche if you'd like), pinch of sea salt, grind of pepper, about a tsp of curry powder (this is essential) and a tsp of ground coriander seeds, few glugs of olive oil, about a tbsp of lemon juice and one little clove of garlic, minced. I mashed it all together, along with a little heat (I added two of my fermented jalapeños but you could add chili pepper, or chopped fresh jalapeño, hot sauce, whatever!).
The mashed ingredients cited above, with the steamed broccoli.
Once this was all mashed together, I tossed on top the blanched broccoli, a diced apple and diced up two stalks of celery, mixed it all up. I adjusted the flavours to be a bit more lemony and upped the curry powder a bit. Because that's how I roll. And that, my friends, is lunch served. As long as you include creme fraiche (with berries, vanilla powder, green tea powder and maple syrup) and a little package of seaweed crackers. All you need now is a lovely friend to share the meal with; sharing meal times with a loved one can really go miles in supporting better digestion. Did you know this? Sharing a meal with a friend instead of a smartphone ensures your nervous system is properly engaged to do the work it takes to digest. It also relieves stress to be with ones you love whilst you eat; stress has been shown to inhibit digestion. So take a break, my pretties! And in more ways that one, make sure your work lunch is a #notsaddesklunch everyday.
