Green Salad with Chickpea, Zucchini and Nigella Seed Burger

At our house we use burgers for sandwiches, but we also use them on top of salads. I like the contrast of cold and hot in a salad and this is easy way to do this that is also healthy. I tend to like textural variety in my salads, not just cold and hot. I also like the variation of crunchy (lettuce and sprouts) and soft (tomato and burger), and full bodied (burger) and airy (sprouts). As you can see I like to play with my food. I think food (particularly healthy food) needs to have a lot of things going on to make it exciting. All of us have had those recipes that might have been healthy but they were boring. For me, varying the texture can make a big difference in how much I enjoy a recipe.

I used the red oak lettuce because it has more nutrients than light green lettuce. We are fortunate to have a great variety of lettuce to choose from at our organic CSA. The broccoli sprouts were included for their cancer fighting ability. If you don’t like the taste of broccoli, the sprouts may be a good solution for you. The broccoli sprouts are much higher in sulforaphane and the taste is very mild (like other sprouts).

Overall this is a very healthy salad with the protein from the beans, the omega 3’s from the chia seeds, and the sulforaphane from the broccoli sprouts. The only issue I had with this salad was that it was a little too low in overall calories to make a complete meal.

Green Salad with Chickpea, Zucchini and Nigella Seed Burger
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon of canola oil
2 chickpea, zucchini and nigella seed burgers
1 head of red oak lettuce
1 large or 3 small fresh tomatoes (approximately 1 cup, diced)
½ cup of broccoli sprouts
2 tablespoons of lemon, cashew and chia seed dressing

Directions:

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed skillet. Cook the chickpea burgers over medium heat until browned on both sides. This should take about 4 minutes per side.

Wash and spin-dry the lettuce. Tear into bite size pieces and place in the bottom of the bowl.

Cut the tomatoes into bite size pieces and place them on top of the lettuce.

Put the broccoli sprouts on top the tomatoes.

Cut the hot and crispy chickpea burgers into bite size pieces. I cut mine into sixths. Top the salad with the burger bites.

Drizzle the salad with the lemon, cashew and chia seed dressing and serve.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 218.54
Calories From Fat (24%) - 51.72

Total Fat - 6.03g
Saturated Fat - 0.65g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 157.32mg
Potassium - 897.76mg
Total Carbohydrates - 29.61g
Fiber - 9.65g
Sugar - 6.88g
Protein - 13.82g

Comments:

We thought this was a tasty salad with a lot of textural variation. For a salad it had a nice amount of protein (almost 14 grams). The fat was just a little higher than I wanted, but if you add some nice fruit to this meal the overall calories go up and the fat percentage goes down to a healthier range. If you are looking for a quick low calorie salad this one is very tasty.