This light and healthy lunch is perfect for hot midsummer days. Do you still need an additional reason to eat this easy summer lunch with chicken and croutons? Well, it is ready in half an hour time! With this weather you don’t want to sweat half a day in the kitchen. In 30 minutes this quick and healthy lunch is ready. Then it is time to go outside and enjoy the weather.
Easy summer lunch with chicken and croutons
Ingredients
- 200 gram chicken stripes
- 2 slices toast bread
- 8 cherry tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic
- 100 gram brown rice
- 10 gram pine nuts
- 50 gram arugula salad
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- juice of half a lemon
Instructions
- Start with cooking the brown rice in the double amount of water. This takes the longest, about 25-30 minutes. By then we will be ready with the rest of the lunch.
- Finely chop the garlic and halve the cherry tomatoes.
- Remove the edges of the bread, and cut the crumb into cubes.
- Roast the pine nuts briefly in the pan until golden brown and fragrant. Then set them aside.
- Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the garlic and croutons in it. Set them aside when they are a nice golden brown.
- Pour some more oil into the pan and then fry the chicken strips in it. Turn them regularly until they are golden brown on both sides.
- Meanwhile, mix the arugula salad with the juice of half a lemon and a little olive oil.
- Mix the mayonnaise, ketchup and white wine vinegar. You can add even more flavor with additional spices.
- Arrange the arugula salad on plates and make a round with the pepper mill over it.
- Arrange the chicken strips, croutons, cherry tomatoes and rice on top of the salad. Leave some space in the middle for the mayonnaise.
- Garnish with the pine nuts and an extra round of pepper mill.
Nutrition
Details for this summer lunch with chicken and croutons
The chicken
I used chicken strips here for the simple reason that they were on sale. Of course you can also take a chicken breast and do the cutting yourself. The advantage is that you can make the pieces as large or as small as you want. Also chicken legs work perfectly well with this salad.
For the vegetarians
People following a vegetarian diet can replace the chicken with tofu, which must also be fried and seasoned well. Alternatively, you can use Mozzarella or feta.
The brown rice
Here again: not a law but an option. You can also use plain rice. I like to eat brown rice because I think it brings a bit more flavor and it is healthier. You have to take into account that it has to boil longer than plain rice.
The pine nuts
Pine nuts are a great way to flavor a dish. Especially if you have roasted them. Alternatively, you can also roast a few cashew nuts and use them for this recipe. Especially if you are making a vegetarian version, it might be a good option to go bigger on nuts.
the croutons
Never ever buy prepared croutons in the store! Making them yourself is very easy and much more fun. Of course you do not need to buy special toast bread if you would never use it otherwise. Plain white bread, or another light type of bread, will work just as well.
Mandatory: no croutons without garlic and olive oil. I bake the bread crumb in garlic and olive oil. This is essential to call the Mediterranean.
The arugula salad
I like arugula salad because it has an intense taste. Would you rather use a different salad, or a store-bought mix? No problem, go ahead!
I seasoned the salad with some lemon juice, olive oil and pepper. But feel free to make your own dressing!
The mayonnaise
Some people may not like mayo at all, but I really do like something a little more creamy. That’s why I made a sauce based on mayonnaise. I seasoned it with ketchup and some white wine vinegar. Don’t be afraid to make your mayo yourself: Mahonnaise – the origin of mayonnaise, contains a super easy recipe that will always work!
About brown rice
Brown rice is not a separate type of rice, but a different preparation of traditional rice. With brown rice, only the outer layer of the grain is removed. Whereas for white rice, all layers are removed until only the white grain with starch remains.
The taste is milder and tends a bit in the direction of nuts. Since brown rice has an extra layer compared to regular rice, it is also more nutritious and healthier. Perhaps the only disadvantage is that it does not have a long shelf life. Because it contains more perishable substances you cannot keep it as long as plain rice. But it is made for eating, not for keeping. So that should not be the problem!
More surprising.chicken
I don’t have many recipes with croutons yet. But chicken is regularly on the menu. Here you will find inspiration to prepare chicken in a different way:
- Delicious cashew.chicken
- Sweet&sour Chinese fried chicken
- Asparagus chicken-curry spring cocktail
- Hasselback chicken
- Chicken spinach balls with feta.
- Mexican style chocolate chicken
- Chicken chowmein
- Smoked chicken with avocado
More surprising.lunch
The summers are getting longer and hotter. Check here for more meals that fit to the new climate:
- Cappelletti con passata
- Healthy lukewarm Greek pasta salad
- Flemish asparagus
- Breaded meatballs in yellow-green
- Asparago tonnato
- summer pasta in yellow-green
If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.
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