Argentinian inspired protein hit

Like crack for vegans and vegetarians chasing a natural protein punch and a shot in the arm for carnivores wanting that extra protein hit without all the meatiness.  Pumpkin seed meal is a powerful green powder containing 49% protein.  It looks beautiful, tastes great and is so versatile*.

Per person.

Approximately 770 calories.

Eat hot or cold.

Under 10 minutes to prep.

Under 10 minutes to cook.

Makes enough to fill a 1 litre take away container, stuffed.

Can be reheated on the stovetop or microwave.

Make extra as keeps for up to 3 days well.

Lunch, dinner or snackable.

Ingredients

400g free range chicken breast fillets sliced into even pieces

1 cup broccoli florets cut into similar size pieces*

1 ½ cup cauliflower florets cut into similar size pieces*

1 cup/100g edamame (shelled beans weight)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

½ cup coriander leaves and/or soft stems

½ cup parsley leaves

½ green chilli (optional and to taste)

1 lemon, rind and juice*

Documenting my food intake through doing the February Challenge has brought quite a lot to light.  I realized that I have a massive struggle with my lifestyle to eat the volume recommended and being in the food trade I found it was my habit to not eat at all rather than eat boring food or eat the same thing twice!  Terrible habits.  I did learn that a major source of my calories was alcohol – somewhat disturbing.  Hence my constant search recently for tasty meals since the ‘beer tap got turned off’ that works well with the Challenge parameters.  Challenging indeed.

This is a take on the Argentinian classic Chimichurri.  I have omitted the olive oil to keep the fats down.  If your diet requires more fats please use:  olive oil, pumpkin seed oil, avocado oil, macadamia oil or similar.

If you have a zester, zest the lemon rind (epic flavor right there) and add with the juice to your blender with the garlic, chilli, coriander and parsley.  Blend, scraping down the sides as necessary until you have a ‘pesto – like’ consistency.  Set aside.

Steam the broccoli and cauliflower until just tender in a medium saucepan adding a tablespoon of water when the pan dries until cooked to your liking.  Remove veg from the pan and set aside in a large bowl.  Use the same pan, heated to medium high, to fry off your chicken.  Again, as it dries out add a tablespoon at a time to effectively steam the chicken.  This is super effective to create a tasty sauce and means you do not need to use any fat source to fry the meat.  Add to the veg and mix well with the edamame and ‘Chimichurri’.  Plate up, sprinkle with pumpkin seed meal and enjoy.

*Use pumpkin seed meal in your smoothies, snack balls, on your cereal, sprinkled on any main meal.  Stored correctly it has a long shelf life.

*This meal goes well with nutritional yeast, generally about 3g of protein per tablespoon with zero fat, and about 2g carbo.

*Pretty good vegan meal too if you omit the chicken and substitute with e.g. tofu.  *Vegetarians try it with an eggwhite omlette chopped through it.

*Broccoli and cauliflower was what was in the fridge.  Any fresh veg, especially green ones are great and will work just as well.

*If your needing more carbs eat with steamed rice, just add a little more water and lemon juice to the pan and your ‘Chimichurri’ to make it a little more liquid so your rice is tasty!