Chicken Soup Salad

You know the feeling. You are curled up in bed and on day four of your antibiotics going, “yeah, I can probably go back to work tomorrow.” There’s always this other part of you that wants to stay snuggly under your covers forever, that can plan out an entirely different day of finishing your Netflix binge and ordering takeout from that new place around the corner. If only you didn’t have all those pesky work responsibilities and stresses. That’s when the “don’t wannas’  set in really badly. I think we all sort of had that feeling during the pandemic. The reason the world stopped turning was awful, but we were secretly a little grateful that the world came to a halt. It reminded us of what is important. It gave us an opportunity to rest. 

This cozy salad is perfect for your first day back at your desk. It has all of the flavors of chicken soup but in a bright and refreshing power bowl. Plus, it’s secretly a Trojan horse of powerful fiber and antioxidants. 

Daring chicken Seitan is flour based dough with all of the starch rinsed from it, leaving just the stringy protein texture. It’s a good low calorie chicken replacement that doesn’t usually have the heavily processed chemical taste that a lot of vegan chicken does. I’m glad that Daring is available for when you just want some simple seitan. 

Chicken Soup Salad

Prep Time 30 minutes
Course Salad
Servings 4

Ingredients  

  • 4 oz chicken or chicken replacement
  • One bulb of fennel
  • two medium carrots I used four skinny ones
  • ½ white onion
  • 6 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tbsp Lemon pepper seasoning
  • A drizzleable amount of olive oil
  • one stalk of celery
  • Two persian cucumbers
  • 2 cups of kale per person
  • ½ cup of greek yogurt
  • ½ of the juice of a lemon
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp dill
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions 

  • Preheat your oven to 400. Finely dice your garlic. Chop your fennel into quarters and then slice ½ inch pieces along the wide end of the bulb. Slice your half of onion in the same way, creating evenly sized pieces. Chop ½ inch medallions of your carrot. slice your celery and cucumbers as thin as you would like and set them aside. On a sheet pan, toss your fennel, carrots, garlic, and onion in olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread your vegetables evenly spaced on your baking sheet so that the pieces are not touching. Bake for ten minutes.
  • While your vegetables are baking, toss your chicken in lemon pepper seasoning and olive oil. When your ten minute timer goes off, move your vegetables to one side of the pan and add your chicken. Bake for an additional ten minutes, turning both vegetables and chicken half way.
  • While the oven is going, make your dressing. Combine yogurt, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, dill, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Chop your kale and massage it in a bowl, so it doesn’t have that fresh cut lawn taste. Once the veggies and chicken are roasted, add them to your bed of kale and top with your yogurt dressing. Enjoy!