Since a week or so I have gotten the idea of eating less items that include wheat. I read that namely wheat is so over processed, that it hardly contains what it used to contain and this makes it hard to digest for the human body. While I don't intend to never have bread again, I would like to reduce the amount of bread I eat.
Picture this: in the Netherlands there is a real bread culture, we have it for breakfast and lunch. And when we have dinner that contains pasta, for instance, then that is a lot of wheat in a day. I don't want to touch my breakfast for now, because I am really not a morning person, and I just want to eat something and not think too much. I dislike the warm overnight oats, so not going there. But lunch seems a fairly easy step.
One of the things that is popular for lunch is salads, but I am really not that much of a salad lover. Only the starchy ones, like pasta salad, potato salad and couscous salad ;) Which kind of beat the purpose. I was thinking about what it was I dislike so much, and the answer was: leafy greens. I love spinach and some leaves in my salads are okay, like rocket, butter lettuce or other kinds. But mostly the leaves are the biggest part of the salad with some add ins. But when I saw half a bag of green beans laying in the fridge that had to be used up, it got me thinking. I love green beans, warm or cold. So they would be the base of my salad. I also had some cherry tomatoes that had seen their best days, and some fresh herbs. I asked my boyfriend if he could get an avocado from the market, which he did, but the house elves seem to have whisked it away, so therefore it did not end up in my salad. I will include it in the recipe though, because I am sure it would be good.
So after these long ponderings, let us go to the actual recipe. I am pretty pleased with myself though :) I managed to cook up a good lunch without bread, using leftovers that needs no dressing!
Green Bean Salad: (serves 2)
- about 200 grams green beans
- 8-10 cherry tomatoes
- some fresh herbs like basil and thyme
- dried oregano
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 avocado
- olive oil
Pre-heat the oven on 180 degrees. Cut and cook the green beans. I did this in my steam cooker. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Place a baking sheet on an oven tray and lay the cherry tomatoes on top, juicy side up. Sprinkle with a bit of olive oil, put the fresh herbs on there and top with a bit of oregano. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Boil the eggs, peel and cut and let them cool a bit with the beans. When the tomatoes are done, let them cool slightly as well. Toss everything together. You will see that you need no dressing because of the juiciness from the tomatoes and is full of flavour from preparing them in the oven. I added one more dessert spoon of olive oil from a pot of sundried tomatoes to add some extra flavour. Lastly cube half and avocado, and stir that through as well.
I think this would also be great with some pine nuts. It may seem like a lot of work, but only the cutting really is. But you need the time for the tomatoes and the slightly cooling down of the ingredients. Still I won't be doing this every day, because it does take away a chunk of my time. Still it was nice to make this. A lot of these steps could be done the day before as well.
So lastly, I really would like some easy tips for a vegetarian wheat free lunch :) Please comment below if you have any :)
