Quick & Healthy Chickpea, Avocado & Feta Salad

Once upon a time when I was about 19 or 20 and a first-year student in university, I loathed lunch hour. Why? I never properly prepared meals, so I ended up buying food either at my university's cafeteria or at a fast-food joint nearby. This was quite annoying for a few reasons:

1. Paying for a lunch everyday is darn expensive;

2. Getting a takeout lunch (or any meal for that matter) is pretty wasteful. Think about it: takeout always has some type of packaging (plastic, styrofoam or cardboard), it includes napkins, plastic cutlery, a plastic or paper bag, little salt and pepper packages, yadee-yadee-yada;

3. And eating out doesn't always offer the most nutritious or healthy options. In fact, these types of foods are usually packaged or frozen, not fresh!

The sad part is, when and if I tried to prepare a lunch at home the results were even more disappointing due to my lack of effort, i.e. a plain bagel and fruit snacks, a half eaten banana and a Lipton's "Cup-a-soup", or something equally as horrible and boring. Bleh! What I soon realized was that making a delicious healthy lunch didn't have to be overly complicated or time consuming. I just needed to put in the effort and time to be a little creative with my preparation! Since I've converted over to the healthy-food-loving and dedicated-meal-prepping side, the lunch results have been hugely rewarding for me. I've added excitement and pleasure into my lunchtime routine, I'm saving money, I'm eating healthier food and I'm experimenting with something new every week! I've been on the hunt for the best vegetarian and vegan lunch ideas, and this is one of my favourites because of how easy, tasty and filling it is. Try it out! The competing flavours in this salad are awesome.

Quick & Healthy Chickpea, Avocado Salad

Vegetarian Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1 large salad bowl (approx 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 19oz can of chickpeas (540 ml)

• 2 avocados, cut into cubes

• Juice of 1 lime

• 1 container of feta cheese cubes - I like a brand called Apetina because it has a built-in-net so you don't need to strain the cubes yourself, and because it is a suitable brand for vegetarians and doesn't use animal rennet

• 1/2 red onion, finely diced

• Dash of pepper and sea salt for seasoning

Directions:

1. Strain and rinse the can of chickpeas. Allow the chickpeas to sit in the strainer in the sink to dry while you go cut up everything else.

2. Dice up half a red onion and put in a large salad bowl (I like to dice it fine - my relationship with red onions is a slowly progressing one).

3. Cube two avocados and add to the salad bowl. I find it easiest to cube my avocados while they are still in their skin, because then I'll just slide the cubes off with my fingers (maybe everyone does it like this, I'm not sure haha)

4. Strain the container of feta cubes. Add feta and chickpeas to the salad bowl.

5. Cut and squeeze the juice of 1 lime all over the salad (or you can use 3 key limes as well - whatever you have on hand), and add some salt and pepper (I prefer a mediterranean salt).

Enjoy this super healthy, high protein, high fat (good fat), high fibre salad with some crackers or a smoothie :).

#salad #saladrecipe #avocado #lunchrecipes #lunchidea #sss