Did you know there is protein in vegetables, grains, starches, and beans/legumes? Did you know if you pair enough of the above together you can make a complete protein? There is no need for animals to get involved! Believe me, we still love animal protein, but we’ve cut back drastically. We very very very rarely eat anything from chicken, pork or turkey. We keep our proteins to plant based options, seafood, and grass-fed beef, bison & elk. So naturally, we play around with different combinations of vegetables, starches and beans. This particular recipe features roasted potato & lentils on a kale salad. There’s also tofu (pictured) as this was my husband’s portion and he needed the extra protein to reach his macro-nutrient requirement, however, depending on your protein needs you may be able to leave it out!
Potatoes
So let’s talk about the potatoes first. They are roasted with no oil. Simply wash them, dry them (or let air dry) and slice in half. These are the cute little potatoes but if you had a big potato you’d just cut into small chunks. Evenly spread onto a tinfoil lined baking sheet. Spray the potatoes with non-stick cooking spray and shake/shuffle around on the pan. Next season generously with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary and/or oregano. These are my favorite seasonings for roasted potatoes. Roast at 350 for 30 minutes, shake around a bit, then continue roasting for another 15-25 minutes depending on color. You want the potatoes to be roasted, browned and crispy!
Lentils
Next, the lentils. I would have never known there are so many varieties of lentils! The ones pictured here are just simple green lentils. I bought a bag and cooked them according to the package. I’ll tell you the first time I cooked them they were a bit underdone. So this time I cooked about 5 minutes longer than the bag had suggested. Trial and error folks! Anyway, they are delicious! Love me some lentils now. You could absolutely swap out for a canned bean that requires no prep besides opening the can and draining the bean. Some good options would be garbanzo beans (chickpeas) or Cannellini beans.
The Greens
Featured in this salad is kale and spinach. You could do just one or the other or you could buy a bag of salad. Really, you choose! And by the way, you can really eat as much of the greens as you can stomach. The greens are going to hold the flavor from the light dressing you add but on their own they have next to no calories, carbs, etc. – so go nuts!
With macro-based meal planning, you get plenty of fat and carbs, you just have to account for how much gets added. We just suggest you don’t cook with oil, but dressing your salad is A-OK! So a light sprinkle of salt and pepper over your dish, a drizzling of 1-2 TBSP of olive, avocado, or walnut oil and fresh lemon juice squeezed on your gourmet greens and you will be thrilled with your plant based salad.
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*The exact portions will vary per person. Contact us for more details on your portions and macronutrient breakdown per meal/per day! There is no need to guess at how you should eat – let us help you eat right for your body type and goals!