Beetitudes

This dish works great for dinner, or to meal prep for a week’s worth of lunches!

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 – 15 oz cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice
• 4 cups of spinach and arugula mix
• 1 cup of radishes, sliced and pickled (soak in apple cider vinegar for 30 minutes)
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• 1/4 cup of red onion, diced
• 20 kalamata olives
• Hummus
• Non-dairy tatziki sauce – click for recipe I used (I swapped in radishes for cucumber because I don’t like raw cucumber)
• 2 limes
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Start by peeling and slicing the radishes, then put them in a bowl and cover with apple cider vinegar. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, cook the rice according to directions. Amount of liquid may vary depending on type of rice, but the kind I used needed 2 1/4 cups of water. Bring rice to a boil, then turn down on low, cover, and simmer until water is gone, stirring occasionally.
3. While radishes are pickling and rice is cooking, chop all of your vegetables and drain the chickpeas. Prepare tatziki if using.
4. Assemble by dividing equally among four bowls the rice, greens and chickpeas. On top of the greens, divide and place all of the remaining veggies, including the pickled radishes.
5. Salt and pepper the bowl, then squeeze the juice of 1/2 of a lime over each bowl. Top with desired amount of hummus and tatziki sauce. I used about 1/4 cup of hummus and a heaping tablespoon of tatziki.
6. Stir it all up and enjoy!

After growing weary of scrolling through paragraph upon paragraph of chatter to get to the recipe on other sites, I decided to post the recipe first and then talk about it for those who like to read the commentary!

I adapted this recipe from an idea I found on Pinterest. As mentioned in the recipe I don’t like raw cucumber, but I’ve found that radishes give that same cool bite without the flavor I hate, so I now always use radishes instead of cucumbers. If you like cucumber, then simply sub in cucumber for the radish – whether or not you pickle it is totally up to you!

I also left out the feta cheese to keep this recipe plant-based. I’ve been eating much more plant-based lately than I used to because I was finally able to kick the cheese habit. I have three servings of meat or dairy per week to keep my total animal protein intake to no more than 5% of calories. Or in other words, 560 calories or less per week from animal-based sources. If you want the feta, you can definitely add some feta crumbles to this.

Next up on Mediterranean Monday- chocolate donuts that are entirely plant-based – no dairy, no eggs, no oils. They also have an added pop of antioxidants with walnuts and milled flax, making them not only guilt-free, but good for you. Stay tuned!