Steak/Chicken superfood salad

With an athlete in the family, healthy food is always important. This recipe was inspired by seeing a Jamie Oliver programme, so many thanks to him for the idea. As I could not find the actual recipe online, we made our own version and this was expanded from steak to chicken when we had an impromptu dinner with friends and I only had chicken in the fridge. Both steak and chicken work well, and a vegetarian friend confirms it is also great with grilled halloumi, so there are lots of options to make it your own. A note on preparation: I get all the various ingredients ready in separate bowls before cooking the rice and meat/cheese, so it is easy to assemble at the end, as the dish should be served with the rice still warm.

Serves: 3-4 as a main course, increase rice and steak/chicken in proportions noted in ingredients for more people

Time to prepare/cook: Approximately 20 minutes to prepare the ingredients; 20 minutes to cook the rice, steak/chicken and peppers (some can be done while you are preparing); 5-10 minutes to assemble the dish

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Ingredients

• 300g wild rice or red rice (100g per person)

• 600g good steak (rib eye or entrecote, thick – assume 150-200g per person) OR 4 chicken breasts (marinated) and cut in half lengthwise into thinner escalopes (these are better to marinate and quicker to cook)

• Handful of chopped, fresh herbs: definitely use mint & parsley; optional are chives, coriander

• Half a pomegranate (seeded)

• 2 stalks of celery

• 100g feta

• 1 large or 3 small Italian red peppers

• 1 lemon

• 2-3 tablespoons of good olive oil

• Salt & pepper

Method

• Prepare the ingredients to be mixed into the rice and put into a bowl: Seed the pomegranate; wash and chop the herbs; wash and chop the celery finely

Preparing the superfood salad ingredients

• Slice peppers into large pieces for grilling, coat lightly with olive oil

• Chop the feta into small pieces and keep in separate bowl

• Squeeze the lemon and keep juice separate

• Cook the rice until it is moist (wild rice takes 20 minutes to cook; add twice as much water as volume of rice, stir regularly towards end of cooking so it does not stick to the pan)

• If using steak: Rub a little salt and pepper on the steak to season it lightly, then grill/fry/barbeque the steak and peppers to coincide with the rice being ready (5-10 minutes depending on thickness of steak) – steak should be medium rare to rare; if cooking the steak in a pan, make sure the pan is hot before starting to cook and coat it with a little olive oil to prevent sticking

• If using chicken: Marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes before cooking in your favourite marinade (e.g. juice of 1 lime, 100 ml rum, 100 ml olive oil, 2 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning, garlic, mint); grill/fry/barbeque the chicken and peppers to coincide with the rice being ready (10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken)

• In the serving dish, toss the cooked rice in the lemon juice and 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, plus a couple of twists of salt and pepper (use grinders) to taste – add the juice and oil slowly and taste so you get a good balance of flavours

• Mix the chopped herbs, celery and pomegranate into the rice

• Cut the steak or chicken into thin slices and the cooked pepper into strips – lay over the top of rice (or you can put the meat/cheese in side dishes to keep the main salad vegetarian-friendly)

• Sprinkle the feta on top and serve immediately while the rice is still warm

Sueprfood salad -- your way