Do not miss this delicious protein salad with pesto sauce

run away Salads are always popular! From the appetizer to the side dish, there is always salad pie. When there is no salad on the table, it seems like the table is missing something essential. Salads are so diverse and exciting and colorful that they are endless. For example, in restaurants, there is usually a special table dedicated only to salads, each of which seems to be winking at you. Salads are originally served as appetizers, but sometimes there are so many delicious and nutritious things inside them that they are considered a main meal by themselves. For example, if you eat Caesar salad alone, you will be so full that there is no room for food, now pasta salad has its own place. Salads are prepared with various vegetables such as cucumber, tomato, cabbage, lettuce, carrot, pickled cucumber, olive, egg, potato, bell pepper, chicken, mushroom, etc., and each one has its own sauces. Protein salad is one of the types of cold salads that is prepared from the combination of chicken fillet with pasta, lettuce, tomato and pesto sauce and has a unique taste. This salad is also very low in calories and healthy, and if you are an athlete or on a diet, you can safely replace this salad as a meal. In the rest of this article, stay with us on how to prepare this delicious protein salad.

ingredients

Chopped lettuce: 1 cup
Chopped chicken breast or fillet: 200 grams
Pasta: 1 cup
Cherry tomatoes: 10 pcs
Chives: 3 branches
Parmesan cheese: as desired
Sour lemon: 1 pc
Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
Salt, black pepper, rosemary powder and garlic powder: as needed
Ingredients for making pesto sauce
Fresh basil leaves: 2 glasses
Garlic: 2 cloves
Olive oil: 2 tablespoons
Peanuts: 3 tablespoons
Parmesan cheese: half a glass
Salt: as much as needed

How to prepare

To make this delicious salad, first mix the chicken pieces with olive oil, salt, black pepper, a little rosemary and garlic powder and mix well and leave it aside for 1 hour to get flavor. After this period of time, put the chicken pieces in a pan and put it on low heat of the gas stove so that the chicken will slowly release water and cook. You can also use the grill to grill the chicken.

In the next step, boil the pasta and drain it when it becomes soft. Put the chopped lettuce in a bowl with the drained pasta, then add the chopped cherry tomatoes along with the chopped chives and mozzarella cheese to the above ingredients. To prepare pesto sauce, first put basil leaves, garlic, peanuts, parmesan cheese, olive oil and salt into a blender or food processor; Then beat for 1 minute until all the ingredients are completely combined and it turns into a thick sauce. Now add the pesto sauce along with the lime juice to the salad ingredients and mix the ingredients well until the flavors are mixed together. Your delicious protein salad is ready to serve at this point, enjoy.

important points

1- Parmesan cheese is one of the most popular types of Italian cheese, which is available in the market in grated, powdered, pieces and sheets. Parmesan is a pale yellow cheese that has a soft texture and takes a long time to process. This cheese is rich in protein and easy to digest. Parmesan cheese is used to prepare all kinds of pasta, sauces, salads and soups. The difference between Parmesan and regular pizza cheese is in the way they are made. Pizza cheese must be cooked and melted on the food; But Parmesan cheese doesn't need to be cooked and melted, and you can use its powder or grated for food.

2- Try to use good quality olive oil to make any kind of food and salad. Olive oil has a special place in the diet of many people due to its high nutritional value. But because the price of pure olive oil is high, it is usually mixed with regular oils when it is marketed. As a result, its quality is reduced; Therefore, those who are looking to buy olive oil, often ask how to identify the original olive oil. Of course, recognizing the purity of olive oil is not an easy task. However, experts have presented three methods to detect olive oil as follows:
– To choose a quality oil, it is better to smell it first. A good olive oil should smell of olive fruit, apple or fresh grass, which is related to the type of olive or the time of its harvest; So if you smell metal, know that the oil is of poor quality or spoiled.
The second way to recognize the original olive oil is to taste it. If you put 1 spoon of olive oil in your mouth and swirl it in your mouth and swallow it by inhaling the air, you should feel a strong bitterness and spiciness in your throat after a few moments. so that your throat burns. In some cases, people cough because of the excessive pungency of the oil. Just after 1 minute, the taste of bitterness and spiciness disappears and it becomes delicious. In addition, a person does not feel fat in his mouth after eating this oil. By eating original olive oil, you will feel sweet at the beginning of your tongue and bitter and burning at the end.
The next method to distinguish olive oil is its original color. The color of olive oil should be greenish yellow. Of course, the color of olive oil is not a good criterion for determining the quality of the oil; Because it can be easily cheated.