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This salad is salty and sweet, crunchy and soft, filling but light. Basically all the things. It’s the perfect thing to serve with steamed or baked fish or even some grilled chicken. Alternatively soft boil a couple of eggs and keep it vegetarian.

Something exciting has happened since I did that whole gut makeover thing. And it makes this salad a possible thing for me to eat. I can eat more fructose than usually. I can eat honey. Even a small amount of onion. To anyone that doesn’t have a food intolerance, and probs specifically a fructose sensitivity (malabsorption to the initiated) this would not sound very exciting. But to those of us that struggle to digest fructose being able to have honey consequence free is HUGE.

I’ve also eaten mango without issue (not a whole one) and a whole host of other things. It’s not that I’m not reacting at all (should not have ordered that smoothie sweetened with dates and eaten falafel in the same sitting, then quince paste later that day, that was silly), but it’s taking a lot more fructose for me to have any kind of reaction. The only reactions I’ve had are a headache and 15 minutes of not so nice stomach pain. So all hail the gut makeover from opening up the world of tropical fruit and natural sweeteners.

You won’t catch me trying agave on for size any time soon though. A small amount of honey does seem to be okay though so yay for the honey mustard dressing on this salad. By using the dressing to flavour the kale before you cook it you get this slightly sticky salty sweet kale that has texture in the salad without being particularly crunchy. You get crunch from the flaked almonds and crispy edges of broccoli.

Adding the lentils makes it super filling and ideal for lunches.

Having it with baked salmon is also amazing. You can easily double the dressing and use it to drizzle over for 80-120g salmon fillets, seal them in baking paper and bake for 10-15 minutes in a 180 degree oven. Perfection!

This salad has a good variety of different vegetables in it to help you get that good for your gut variation throughout the week.

Serves 4 with protein added

Ingredients

4 cups roughly chopped tuscan kale

1 small head of broccoli, separated into florets

1 clove garlic

1 tsp olive oil

1 cup cooked french puy lentils (see notes for cooking instructions if using dried)

1 lebanese cucumber, finely sliced

2 radishes, finely sliced

1/4 cup flaked almonds

1/2 cup shaved parmesan

zest of one lemon

Dressing

2 Tbs olive oil

2 tsps wholegrain mustards

1 tsp honey

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Juice of one lemon (2-3 Tbs)

Directions

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.

Combine all dressing ingredients excluding the lemon juice. Mix well.

Combine olive oil and broccoli florets in a bowl. toss to coat spread in a single layer on one of the baking trays. Add clove of garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook for 30 minutes or until starting to colour.

Place kale in a large mixing bowl and drizzle over half the dressing. Massage into the kale and spread on the remaining baking tray. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.It should be softened and only crispy at the edges.

Once the vegetables are cooked combine the remaining dressing with the lemon juice and the roasted clove of garlic (crush it first).

Toss the lentils, kale, broccoli, radish and cucumber together with 2/3 of the almonds, lemon zest, parmesan and dressing. Serve with the remaining almonds, lemon zest, parmesan and dressing drizzled over the top.

Enjoy!

HH. x

Notes: Rinse 2/3 cup of lentils well and combine in a small pot with 1 1/3 cups water and a pinch of salt. bring to the boil then reduce the heat and cook uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until tender.