5:2 Diet Recipe: Roasted Jerusalem Artichoke (Sunchoke) and Kale WinterSalad with a Vegetarian Pangritata
When you embark on a new way of eating, there are always going to be times when you fall off the wagon. There will always be times when the diet just hasn’t panned out, you lost your sense of will power and gave in to temptation. But that just means that there are times when you have to get right back on that wagon, regain your focus and carry on. One thing's for sure, a moment on the scales with numbers that are somewhat north of where you were hoping can be great motivation.
So it’s with a heavy heart that I have to say that I’ve fallen off with a resounding thud! I’ve put on almost a stone in the last couple of months and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed with myself, even if I do have the excuse of Christmas combined with falling down the stairs and hardly moving for a month… it doesn’t excuse the best part of a stone!
So with that rather unpleasant confession out of the way, I am pleased to say that my fridge has been rid of unhealthy treats and it’s completely chock full of delicious fresh vegetables and pulses and I’m back on the 5:2 diet with a vengeance as I phase out my painkillers (I have to take them on a full stomach, so the fasting had to go on hold).
So here’s to the first day. I may have put back on half of what I lost, but I’m not going to be down and I’m certainly not out. And to celebrate? I’ll have a Jerusalem Artichoke and Kale salad please.
5:2 Diet Recipe: Roasted Jerusalem Artichoke (Sunchoke) and Kale Winter Salad with a Vegetarian Pangritata (258 cals)
Serves 1
There’s something wonderfully comforting about the Jerusalem Artichoke (or Sunchoke if you’re in the US), they add a velvety richness to a winter soup and roasted like they are in this recipe, they provide the filling quality of potato but with a caramelised stickiness that manages to be concurrently sweet and savoury.
Jerusalem Artichokes are absolutely best friends with garlic, bay leaves, thyme and lemon so that is precisely what you’ll be roasting them in for this fabulous 5:2 diet salad.
Give 150g Jerusalem Artichokes a bit of a scrub but don’t peel them, cut into quarters (length ways). Par boil them for 10 minutes, drain then put into a bowl with a 1/4 tsp olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, 3-4 bay leaves, a good shake of dried thyme and a small garlic clove, roughly chopped. Putting them into this mix while they’re still hot will help the artichokes soak up all those wonderful flavours.
Pop the flavour-steeped chokes into an oven set to gas mark 6 (200c) and roast for 30-40 minutes until they are nicely golden with caramelised edges. Give them a turn half way through.
Meanwhile, prepare and assemble the rest of the salad. You can really go for anything here but for a hot winter salad I really don’t think that you can beat Kale. It just so happened that the farmers market this week had both the purple and green varieties on offer so I came home with a veritable sack full!
All you need to do is wash roughly chop 50g broccoli and 70g kale, removing the tough stalks in the process. Plunge them into a pot of boiling water and let them bubble away for 5 minutes.
In the meantime, whizz up half a slice of bread in a food processor (or grate it if you don’t have one) with half a teaspoon of capers, a small clove of garlic, a shake of chilli flakes , salt, pepper and a handful of fresh herbs, I used parsley since that’s what I had in. Normally these would be drenched in fat now but that wouldn’t be very 5:2 Diet friendly! So spray a frying pan with a 5 pumps of Frylight spray and add the breadcrumbs to the pan. Tossing over a high heat until they turn a wonderful golden brown.
From here on out it’s a simple assembly job. The kale is drained and the chokes are taken out of the oven and they are tossed together with another squeeze of lemon juice, a 1/4 tsp olive oil and a generous helping of salt and pepper. Scatter over the pangritata and you’ve got a supper that’s worthy of any day of the week, let alone a fast day!
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