Chicken, Roasted Broccoli and Cashew Hot Salad
It’s a salad – only hot. Interesting, energizing, easy and delicious: try this lunch recipe for one!
A “hot salad” is a vegetable-heavy dish that’s delicious and satisfying. Not quite a stir fry, not a side dish.
I like to make my “hot salads” colorful and rounded in flavor and texture. I find that I always feel better when I concentrate on eating a vegetable-heavy lunch with adequate protein.
Because I love food and I work with it all day, my lunches need to be delicious – or there is no way I will prioritize eating them.
Store-bought, pre-cooked seasoned chicken breasts give you a head-start in this nourishing and energizing lunch.
To get this recipe going, simply roast a pan of broccoli florets. In the fifteen minutes it takes the broccoli to roast, chop the other ingredients. And then just toss them all together on one plate.
This is great eaten right away or packed in a container for a to-go lunch.
Chicken, Roasted Broccoli and Cashew Hot Salad
Ingredients
- 1 precooked and seasoned chicken breast
- 1 small head of broccoli precut, prepackaged broccoli would be efficient here
- pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 red onion
- 1/4 cup cashews if using raw cashews, follow the toasting instructions below
- 1 teaspoon additional olive oil for drizzling on salad
- 2 Tablespoons bottled balsamic reduction a splash of balsamic vinegar would be fine if you don't have a reduction, but just use sparingly
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Chop the broccoli and cut the florets into bite size pieces.
- Place the broccoli on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and rub the salt and oil into the broccoli. Please remember that wet or damp broccoli will not roast well so be sure to make sure it's dry.
- Roast broccoli in a 400°F oven for 15-20 minutes. Stirring after about 7 minutes.
- While the broccoli is roasting, chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and chop the onion.
- When the broccoli is roasted enough (use your own judgement – it should be bright green with toasted edges) put the chicken on the pan then put it back in the oven for about three minutes – to warm the chicken.
- Take the baking pan of chicken and broccoli out of the oven and arrange the chicken and broccoli on a plate.
- If you are using raw cashews, place on the (now empty) hot baking pan and put back into the oven for the cashews to toast. About 3 minutes.
- While the cashews are toasting, drizzle the salad with a little olive oil and the balsamic reduction.
- Top the salad with the toasted cashews.
- And you're done!
- You can eat this immediately or you can box it up and take it to work. It's good served both hot and cold.