Lox Salad With Creamy Lemon Dressing

February 20, 2015

I am so excited to introduce you all to my wonderful lox salad dressing! I got the inspiration for this salad from Christal of Nutritionist In The Kitch, who posted a fabulous massage kale and lox nicoise salad recipe. I wanted to make a salad that would be ideal for colder winter days with plenty of warm ingredients yet still healthy and delicious.

Also, for those of you who don’t know what lox is, lox is just salmon that has been cured in a salt-sugar rub or brine. ‘Authentic’ lox is made from the belly of the salmon. I don’t know if what I bought was ‘authentic’ lox but it was delicious and more than did the trick for me 🙂

What Makes This Lox Salad Special?

I have wanted to make a salad utilizing this creamy lemon dressing for a while, so I thought ‘why not make a lox salad to go with it?’. Admittedly, I used garlic instead of shallots but the dressing definitely didn’t suffer as a result.

I had a bunch of vegetables in my fridge that I wanted to use, and a few other ingredients I had eaten in a salad at Boudin that I wanted to incorporate into this lox salad. The result was an incredibly filling and delicious salad full of healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, protein and fiber. This is definitely a lower carbohydrate recipe as the main source of carbohydrates come from the roasted sweet potatoes, mmm.

How To Make My Lox Salad

Lox Winter Salad

Alice Williams

A delicious and warming winter salad with lox.

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Ingredients

50 g lox
Romaine lettuce or salad mix
Half a medium sweet potato
5 spears asparagus
1 tbsp capers
1 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes
5 olives
Optional: dried rosemary
Dressing makes 1 cups worth
3 cloves garlic
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice approx 1 and a half small lemons
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Let's make the dressing first: in a food processor, combine together all of the ingredients and blend until smooth and then put aside for now.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees farenheit.
Get your sweet potato and chop into cube sized pieces. Put on a baking tray and drizzle some olive oil on top, add salt, pepper and some dried rosemary (optional).
At the same time, prepare another baking pan and put the asparagus on it and also drizzle some olive oil and add some salt and pepper.
Here is the tricky part: time co-ordination!
Let the asparagus roast for approximately 10-15 minutes.
Let the sweet potato bake for 12 minutes, toss it and then continue baking for another 12 minutes.
While that is roasting, assemble the romaine lettuce (I like to finely shred mine) or salad leaves and toss with some of the dressing. I will use around 1-2tbsp depending on the size of the salad.
Add the capers, sun-dried tomato, olives into the salad.
Once the sweet potato and asparagus are done, toss them into the salad.
Finally, add the lox on top and ENJOY!

Notes

If the salad is a bit too much on the salty side, omit either the olives or the capers.

Adapted from Nutritionist in the Kitch

Oh geez, my mouth is seriously watering remembering how good this lox salad was. I ran out of lox (meh) but I think I will recreate this salad with chicken for lunch tomorrow … or maybe I will just buy more lox hehehe.

Have you ever had lox before?

Don’t forget to let me know if you tried it and what you thought of this recipe! I need someone to talk to about it haha.

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for always supporting me! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.

Friday Fare, Health, Healthy on the cheap, Products I love

My Favorite Carbohydrates

February 17, 2015

Contrary to what you may read or hear, carbohydrates (and especially complex carbohydrates) are good for you and essential for your well-being. A while ago, I wrote a piece about carbohydrates and why you should not cut them out of your diet. Click here to read the blog post to get up to date on why you should not go on a low-carbohydrate diet. I realize that there are many reasons people go on a low-carbohydrate diet, but they tend to have specific reasons for doing so. For the majority of people, it is not necessary to cut out carbohydrates to lose weight and fat.

Newsflash: Carbohydrates aren’t evil

I eat a variety of carbohydrates daily, which range from leafy green vegetables (yes, vegetables are a form of carbohydrates!) to delicious sourdough breads. I wanted to compile a list of my favorite carbohydrates which I think can help introduce some variety in your diet and encourage you to try new foods.

My Favorite Carbohydrates

1. Marble Rye Bread

How I enjoy it: Try adding some smashed avocado on top in place of butter (like this).

2. Garbanzo beans (or chickpea’s as is said in the UK)
How I enjoy it: I make a veggie burger with them (like this)!

3. Bananas
How I enjoy it: On their own, with nut butter or in a fruit salad.

4. Sesame Rye Crackers
How I enjoy it: Usually with some smashed avocado I have to admit. I love avocado!!

5. Quinoa
How I enjoy it: Fabulous for stir-fries! Try cracking an egg over some cooked quinoa to make ‘fried rice’ 🙂

6. Brown Rice
How I enjoy it: I love having brown rice in warm salads and adding it to soup for a heartier meal.

7. Sourdough Bread
How I enjoy it: Same as the marble rye bread honestly!

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Another notable carbohydrate I love is oatmeal. I make overnight oats (here is a fun kombucha overnight oats recipe) or healthy pancakes with them (four ingredient recipe here).

What is your favorite carbohydrate and how do you eat it?

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for always supporting me! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.

Friday Fare, Health

Mint Chocolate Chip Smoothie Bowl

November 22, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who is celebrating! Ever since I had my first real experience of Thanksgiving just a few short years ago (Brit’s don’t celebrate it!), it has fast become one of my favorite holidays. I can’t pinpoint exactly why; I love the food involved (PUMPKIN), the focus on being grateful and spending time with people you love. To show you all my appreciation, I thought I’d give you all a fun new recipe to try that is healthy yet tastes like a delicious dessert … Mint chocolate chip smoothie bowl!

Mint Chocolate Chip Smoothie Bowl

The inspiration for this recipe came from supermodel Cindy Crawford. She talked about a smoothie she made and so of course I HAD to make it too, but with a few alterations. I used cow’s milk instead of almond milk for more protein and instead of carob chips, I used Dang’s dark chocolate covered (coconut) chips instead. This smoothie features mint, which is something I have never used in a smoothie before. Mint is extremely low in calories and is a vitamin and mineral powerhouse. The mint you tend to find in supermarkets is spearmint, which has a significant amount of vitamin A which has been said to promote healthy skin and support your immune system. Perfect for this dry and cold winter weather! It also provides a good source of iron, which is good for your blood, and manganese, which supports healthy brain function and aids the production of sex hormones hehe.

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Recipe