Easy As Chicken and Watercress Waldorf Salad
Serves: 4
Time: 15 minutes
I have more than my fair share of days where I just don’t have the energy or motivation to cook dinner; these are the days when a good cheat meal can be a good option. I especially like a cheat meal that doesn’t feel like the same old same old.
Leftovers
Lunch for tomorrow is exactly the same or you could mix it up and pop the leftovers in a roll.
Pick it clean
I often find after I think all the chicken is used there's still plenty left on the bones to use. A great way to use up any of the leftover meat from the chicken is to put it in a chicken soup. See the blog page for a super easy recipe.
What you'll need
1 store bought cooked chook (I used the free range bird from Harris farms - the flavour is fabulous)
1/2 a bunch of watercress
1 broccoli
1/2 cucumber or baby quakes
1/2 a celery
2 granny smith apples
1/2 lemon
1 cup of toasted walnuts
100g shaved Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of Greek yoghurt
From the pantry
1/4 cup of Vegenaise or mayo
salt and pepper
Optional extras for Lunch
Soft rolls (choose the individual options in the bakery section so you don’t get stuck with a whole bag)
Vegetarian option
A white bean such as cannellini works good * also a good option if you want an extra filler
Prep and Cook
Preheat Oven To 180c
Toast Walnuts
Place walnuts in a roasting tray and cook for 8 minutes. I find with walnuts you only need to toast them lightly, if they get to dark they tend to taste quite bitter.
Strip Chicken
Pull all the meat off the chicken while it is still warm into large shredded pieces. Place into a large mixing bowl and leave to cool slightly.
Once the chicken has cooled, add the mayo and yogurt and mix together till nicely coated.
Clean Watercress
You need to be ruthless when cleaning up watercress, you only want to pick the nice rich looking green leaves and discard anything thats looking a bit yellow. Often the bulk of the watercress that you get will mainly just be tips. Cover completely with cold water, give them a really good wash and then make sure to remove the watercress by hand as opposed to tipping it through a colander as you want to leave all the dirt and any slugs behind in the water.
Prep Salad
Pick the watercress and place into a bowl. Cover it completely with cold water and give it a good wash, then shake off excess water.
Slice apple into thin half circles and place into a bowl of cold water with a squeeze of fresh lemon.
Wash celery and slice into diagonal bite size pieces.
Slice cucumber.
Cut broccoli into small bite sized florets.
Drain off your apples and add all of the above ingredients to the bowl of chicken.
Add the toasted walnuts and shaved Parmesan.
Season well with salt and pepper.
Toss all together with the chicken.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
Lunch can either be exactly the same as dinner or this would work nicely inside a crusty roll.