Chemical Reaction: Power Lunch
This is a feel-good eating plan with a difference: it’s about chemicals, not calories. These meals are designed to cleanse your system, build strength and fire your body’s pleasure receptors. It’s happy health, on a plate.
Phase two: Charge
This protein-heavy, carb-savvy lunch reacts with the nutrients you absorbed at breakfast to continue cleansing. It also readies your enzymes to heighten the mood-boosting effects of the evening meal to come.
But before that, you need to get through the afternoon. The ratio of carbs-to-fat in this salad’s noodles and avocado will provide all the energy you need to work through to dinner in a positive state of mind.
Asian wild salmon salad by Jennifer Irvine, of Gourmet Food Delivery Service The Pure Package
4 fillets of wild salmon,skinned
2 cloves garlic, finelychopped
4 spring onions, finelychopped
60ml dark soy sauce
45ml mirin (a rice wine similar to sake)
200g broccoli, cut intosmall florets
180g brown rice
vermicelli noodles
100g baby spinach
1 avocado, peeled andcut into chunks (prep last)
1 red pepper, cut intostrips
40g alfalfa sprouts
Handful of coriander
- Place the salmon fillets onto a foil-covered baking tray. Roast for 8-12min. Remove and leave to cool.
- Now start the dressing. Fry the garlic and spring onions on a low heat until lightly browned. Allow to cool then mix with soy sauce and mirin. Put to one side. Blanch the broccoli for 5min until just tender.
- Empty the brown rice vermicelli noodles into a large heatproof bowl. Pour enough boiling water over the noodles to cover them. Stir and then leave for 5-8min.
- Plate up the spinach, broccoli and avocado. Put noodles in the middle with the salmon on top. Add red pepper, alfalfa sprouts and coriander. Serve with dressing on the side.
The benefits
- Avocados: “Healthy fats boost your mood and improve your sense of well-being,” says nutritionist Dr Nicholas Perricone. Exactly what you need to get through the afternoon.
- Broccoli: A great source of vitamin C and magnesium, which helps to process toxins quickly.
- Soy sauce: Dark soy sauce is lower in salt than the light variety, helping to reduce your sodium intake. Not only will this keep you better hydrated (salt’s a diuretic) but your heart will thank you, too.
- Alfalfa sprouts: These contain a range of nutrients that help to break down toxins, including calcium, magnesium, folic acid, manganese, silicon, potassium, sodium and zinc.
- Garlic and spring onions: When chopped, these release allicin, a sulphur-based compound with mighty antioxidant properties – which makes it a significant ally for your liver.
- Wild salmon: In addition to their cholesterol-lowering and heart-protecting benefits, the omega-3 fats in this fish also help stave off liver damage.
- Brown rice vermicelli: Brown rice has the best carb-to-weight ratio of any complex carbohydrate. This will stop you craving fat as the afternoon progresses.
Words by Mark Sansom. Photography by Max Oppenheim
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