There’s a salad bar close to work where I’ve started ordering the same salad every time: chicken, avocado, goats cheese, couscous, plus salad leaves (tokenism, at this point) and dressing. If my afternoon looks to be free of opportunities to converse with colleagues, I’ll even throw in some red onion.
At home, I usually make this salad with dried apricots to counter the tang of the dressing. When I made it this time, we were fresh out (my favourite first world problems relate to running out of dried fruits, don’t yours?) so I did without. CB suggested throwing in raisins or sultanas instead to replicate the sweetness, but after a childhood spent between two former British territories, I find any mixture of chicken and raisins a la coronation chicken (aka. The Jewel of the Empire) to be a little discomfiting.
This recipe is my current favourite Friday night go to – it’s quick, fairly healthy and filling – perfect for summer nights when you want to be full but you don’t want anything hot. It can be paired with your favourite dressing (nothing creamy or too spicy) but I’ve included my favourite generic salad dressing recipe too, in case you’re stuck.
Serves 2 big appetites for dinner, or 4 for lunch
Ingredients:
Salad
350g chicken breast
60g soft goat’s cheese, chopped
1 large avocado, chopped
6 dried apricots, chopped
1 x 200g bag of sweet salad leaves (try Florette salads)
70g uncooked couscous
150ml of chicken or vegetable stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of spicy red pesto
Also
Your favourite chicken seasoning – I use herb salt, chicken all purpose seasoning and lots of pepper
Dressing
2 tbsp olive oil
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
Plenty of ground pepper
Juice of 1/4 of a lime
Method
- Season the chicken generously and cook for 10 minutes if you are using a George Foreman grill, or cook as preferred.
- Regardless of the packet instructions, put the couscous in a bowl and add the stock, lemon juice and a good grind of pepper. Cover with a plate or some cling film and steep for 5 minutes.
- Roughly shred the salad leaves into the salad bowl and add the goat’s cheese, avocado, apricots, pesto and couscous. When the chicken is cooked (pierce it in the middle – it’s cooked if the juices run clear), shred it and add to your bowl.
- To make the dressing, quickly whisk all the dressing ingredients together in a mug. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly.
Use the remaining 3/4 of the lime for weeknight Coronas.
Hehe I love that you make sure that you don’t breathe onion breath on colleagues! If only everyone were so considerate 😀
I consider it to be a humanitarian service, frankly! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
yum.. what an awesome recipe + flavour combination. love the dressing recipe especially, definitely will be giving it a go in my kitchen. thanks!
Thanks Thalia! It definitely goes down a treat in chez Avocado….Let me know how it goes! Thanks for dropping by.
This sounds great, especially with the addition of apricots. I don’t eat meat but I think this would work well without the chicken. SD
Thanks Sandra! I think it would do – the avocado and goat’s cheese are pretty meaty as is.
Made this last week as an easy mid-week supper and it was delicious – especially the dressing recipe. Not a big apricot fan so left them out and it still worked well – will definitely become a weeknight regular! Looking forward to trying out some more madavocado recipes 🙂
Thanks Jenny! Can’t wait to hear how they go 🙂
Possibly one of the best salads I’ve seen!
Thanks Paul!
Ooh yes please, definitely one for next week’s meal plan me thinks. And a perfect recipe too for this month’s Family Foodies challenge – thanks so much for sharing.
Let me know how you get on! I was so delighted to find that I could take part 🙂 All the entries look delicious…