Healthy workday salads

I have a fetish for salads and particularly towards winter, when the best of salad greens are available, it's a daily indulgence. Of late, I have been trying to reduce carbs in my diet and eat more protein, for health reasons, due to an auto immune condition I have - Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Quinoa, while expensive both in terms of cost and carbon consumption, is a great addition to the diet for its rich micronutrient profile, including magnesium and phosphorus. It also adds dietary fiber, so a win-win.

I find it easy to set a fixed menu for lunch at the office - helps my cook by shortcutting the decision making process, and the time consuming part of the prep can be done one time. So we made the quinoa at the beginning of the week and refrigerated it, similarly with the chickpeas and roasted pumpkin. To add variety, I just changed up the salad dressing through the week. So putting together the salad is, ironically, a piece of cake!

Ingredients for one serving:
1 cup quinoa, soaked and cooked
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup pumpkin, oven roasted with a little olive oil
1 apple, sliced chunkily
1 spring onion
1 carrot, grated thick
1/2 cup pomegranate
1 cucumber, deseeded and chopped into chunks
Handful of coriander leaves
1/2 cup halved walnuts

Dressing:
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp honey ( depending on your sweet tooth, you can add a little more)
1.5 tsp kasundi (Bengali grainy mustard which I love)
Juice of 1 small lime
Himalayan rock salt to taste

Whip together the olive oil and mustard into an emulsion, with a fork. Add the honey and lime juice until it combines well.

For an office lunch, you can pack the dressing separately and add it just before eating.

Changes you can ring:
Ingredients:
I'm on a detox from various Hashimoto's triggers so avoiding tomatoes, capsicum, baingan, dairy etc. If you don't have any such dietary restrictions, feel free to add those veggies. A few lettuce or rocket leaves wouldn't go amiss either.

Feta, or blue cheese if you like, it are great additions

I had planned to add sunflower seeds but the pack I had bought turned out to have worms - blech! Flax seeds are also a good addition, but add them just before eating. Pine nuts also taste great




















Dressing:
Apart from the dressing above, a simple pounded garlic, lime juice and rock salt combination also tastes very fresh. If you're using kala chana, you can add chaat masala and lime juice.

My favourite is Tahini dressing:
1/2 cup hung curd
1 tbsp tahini
1 green chilli
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
Small handful of coriander leaves

Fling everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Top your salad with this just before eating. Ps. If you're tempted to skip the sugar - don't. It adds an interesting complexity to the flavour. You can add garlic and cumin if you like, but it tastes just as good without.