Butterbean, Pasta and Pesto Salad

What are Mondays for, if not starting off with good intentions?

I’m not a big salad fan, but I do like butterbeans, pesto and pasta a great deal. So I decided to whip something up that would be a bit more interesting (and better for me) than a ham sandwich lunch.

This is really simple to make, and can easily be made out of leftover pasta if you happen to have made too much (which always, constantly happens to me). I am using my homemade pesto, but feel free to use any that you like. It takes 2 seconds to whip up, makes about 4 portions, and makes meal prep reeeeeally easy.

Feel free to play around with the flavours, or leave out the pepperoni to keep veggie. Speaking of veggies, I have a fairly limited repertoire of ones I actually like, so I’m happy with what I’ve put in, but feel free to go wild and add tomatoes or carrots or whatever you crazy salad-lovers fancy.

Chicken and Falafel Salad - Or: My First Salad

I'm going to take the blog in a slightly different direction for this one, because.. THIS IS MY 200th POST!

And for that, I’m going to let you all into a secret.

I’ve never made a salad before.

Because I had always held the belief that..

And to be honest, this is definitely true..

I was never particularly bothered about it, apart from having a sneaking suspicion that I am missing out on something which could be quite delicious. I had never really considered salad a dinner. It was what you'd eat when you were punishing yourself for whatever reason. It was about tolerable on the side of something actually delicious, or on top of a burger. 

I resolved to make a foray into salads after eating a particularly delicious one while on holiday in Lisbon. It had crisp lettuce, delicately spiced chicken, a host of veggies and a balsamic dressing. I was smitten.

I decided that I’d give salads a go myself, seeing as we are coming into salad and beer-garden season (HAH! It's been snowing recently..). But to keep it safe, I wanted to stick to flavours and textures which were familiar to me, so I thought I’d try an Eastern-inspired chicken salad with some sesame baked falafel on the side. It's simple, but tasty. And I'm using it as a springboard for more elaborate salads in the future!

And while simple, it's goooood. The parts themselves are delicious together or separately. Those falafel would be really delicious in a hummus pitta. The chicken would be equally delicious over couscous with roasted vegetables. Go wild!