Spinach Radicchio Salad with Smoky Roasted Chickpeas & Pistachios
This Spinach Radicchio Salad with Smoky Roasted Chickpeas & Pistachios is one satisfying, healthy salad.
It combines the different textures of the baby spinach leaves, the radicchio lettuce, with the added crunch of the red radishes, and the crispy crunch delight of the smokey roasted chickpeas and pistachios. The fusion of sweet, bitter, tangy, smoky, nutty flavours of this salad are remarkable.
It’s salad time, my friends. Today we’re talking salad. This is not just a salad. It’s an elevated, beautiful textured and flavoured salad.
With all my salads, I’m looking to combine unique flavours and textures. Salad does not have to be boring. I love to come up with super amazing salads to enjoy during the week, at work, or for dinner. It’s not complicated at all. If you lack ideas for tasty elevated and healthy salads you came to the right place. I’ll try to satisfy your need with this superb nutrient-rich salad.
Yes, it’s a nutrient-rich salad. The essential nutrition consists of macronutrients and micronutrients. You’ve heard everyone mentioned macros right? Well, to make a long story short, macros are the carbohydrates, proteins, fibres and fats that our bodies need in a large amount for us to have a balanced diet. The micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that we need as well but in smaller amounts. The meals that we prepare for ourselves daily are supposed to combine a good quantity of macro and micronutrients to achieve optimal health. It’s easier said than done, right? :)
When I created this salad, I wanted it to be a satisfying salad that will offer you satiety and energy at the same time. The salad ingredients cover a good range of macro and micronutrients.
Chickpeas or garbanzo beans offer a variety of macro and micronutrients. They’re super dense and provide carbohydrates, proteins, fibres, fats and vitamins. Because chickpeas contain proper amounts of both proteins and fibres, they’re genuinely satisfying and keep your hunger under control for a long time. As a plant-based eater, I use chickpeas quite often in the prep of my meals, lunches, especially. Lentils and legumes are, in fact, the primary source of proteins on a plant-based diet.
The addition of the lovely radicchio lettuce was strategic. :) It’s not only a beautifully coloured lettuce, with so much crunch and crisp, but it does have high health benefits. It contains a wide range of the vitamin B complex (B1, B3, B5, B6, B9), and it helps the body metabolize the fats, carbs and proteins. Adding radicchio lettuce to our meals will help improve the digestion and metabolism of our bodies. With summer at our door, it’s the perfect time to think of ways of including this lovely unique lettuce to our salads. On its own, it’s not as easy to consume due to the bitter notes, but in combination with other veggies, it’s quite tasty. I adore crunchy vegetables in my salad, and I almost always try to find a mix of greens that includes radicchio.
The same goes for the spinach. It’s packed with nutrients, and everyone knows of the fantastic health benefits of the spinach. Now, this is one of my favourite greens. I eat it in bulk. Yes, in bulk! Sometimes I have a large (and I mean massive) spinach salad, with different seeds as toppings and raw crimini mushrooms. Add some fresh cut cucumbers, red onions, tomatoes, plus a simple homemade creamy dressing, and it’s the best salad ever.
Are you excited about this salad yet? Do you want me to talk about it some more? I could! :)
I love my salads; let me tell you. What’s not to love about them? Freshness, crunch, sweetness, bitterness…there are so many combinations that can make a salad so enjoyable at any time of the day.
The dressing of this salad? Oh boy! Hold on tight and go make it. It’s super tasty — so creamy and smooth tasting. The addition of the capers gives the salad a slightly tangy taste that it’s the perfect match for the sweet, smoky flavour of the roasted chickpeas.
And the ‘cherry’ on top of the salad is the pistachios. I’m not sure if you’re using pistachios on your salads, but I do. It’s kind of a treat and pistachios can really elevate a salad. I prefer to buy raw organic (of course) pistachios and cook them any way I want. If I have the time, I prefer to soak them first (for improved digestion) and then I proceed to roast them. It’s the best way to consume them and to reap the real health benefits of these tasty nuts.
Ok, now I’m done talking about this fantastic salad that you should try to make. You will give it a try, right? :) You’ll love it. It’s so so good.
As always, thank you for stopping by to check my recipes.
I’d love to have your feedback and hear from you if you try any of my recipes. They’re full of flavour and always Soulfully Tasty.
Hugs!
T
