Simple Salad Bowls: Smoked Chicken and Bulgar wheat/Couscous and Sausage

Hello,
I trust everyone is doing great, today I want to share with you a meal that is dear to my heart, I used to eat this at least 4 times a week for lunch, these days not so much. I'll give you double trouble, sharing two different variations. Salad bowls are healthy, filling and versatile as long as you use veggies you love and a yummy dressing.



In my come back post, I talked about how it gets a little stressful to find delicious fresh and healthy ingredients in Nigeria, let me take that back and specify in Lagos and I will tell you why. I recently visited Abuja, that had been my first visit to Northern Nigeria in 10 years and just within the regular markets e.g Utako, I found so many fresh ingredients at very affordable prices compared to Lagos where you have to go to the specialty stores or special veggie markets. I didn't want to leave Abuja, the environment is very different from Lagos, its very chilled, everyone is easy going, barely any traffic and the people are welcoming. You know how they say, 'you do not know what you have until you loose it', it would interest you to know I was born in the North, Zaria specifically and lived there for almost 13 years but only came to realize the things I missed almost another 13 years after. Of course I knocked myself out at the Utako market and brought back couple of veggies with me. I bought fresh parsley, celery, beetroot, dill, purple cabbage, lettuces, peas, potatoes and onions, I spent below 3000 Naira and trust me it was a whole lot of stuff.

Lets make these salad bowls, shall we?

Smoked Chicken and Bulgar Wheat Salad bowl.

Bulgar Wheat is a very good substitute for rice, its low in carb and high in fiber;
I used
Bulgar wheat
Smoked chicken
Green pepper
Cabbage
Sweet Corn
Carrots
Green beans
Spring onion
Thousand Island dressing

Step 1- Cook Bulgar wheat with chicken stock, salt and pepper or as desired and let it cool
Step 2- Boil or grill the smoked chicken and season as desired and let it cool, slice into bite sized pieces.
Step 3- Blanch carrots and green beans
Step 4- Slice all other veggies.
Step 5- Assemble your ingredients in your bowl add dressing.
Step 6- Eat










Couscous and Sausage Salad bowl

To cook the Couscous:
Couscous
Fresh parsley
Fresh Dill
Onion
Peas
Salt and pepper
Stock cube
Paprika
Chili powder
Place couscous and water at the same level in a clean pot, add fresh peas, salt, pepper, stock cube, chili powder and paprika, cover and allow on cook on low heat, as soon as the water is almost dried out add the sliced dill and parsley and onion. Cover and continue cooking on low until the all the liquid has evaporated. Fluff with a fork and set aside.

For the salad:
Lettuce
Purple cabbage
Carrot
Cucumber
Baked beans
Canned sausage
Slice all the veggies into bite sized pieces and assemble into a bowl in your desired order.

For Dressing:
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper
In any small container with a tight lid, add 3 parts olive oil to 1 part Lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, add salt and pepper and shake until the olive oil and lemon are emulsified.

Add your cooled couscous to your already assembled bowl of salad, drizzle over your dressing mix it all together and enjoy.