Cauliflower Rice Almond Chickpea Salad.
Cauliflower “rice” almond chickpea salad that is vegan and gluten free. Meatless Monday, packable lunch or side dish idea.
So happy to be back from vacation. We so needed a break from the summer routine, swimming, tennis and day-to-day duties. Exploring another country was a lot of fun and I always love learning another language. I enjoyed so much vegan cuisine along the way and takeaway so much inspiration from pretty much everything we experienced. I was thrilled to still train while on vacation, it’s a sanity thing for me. Not that I don’t love my family but everyone in one hotel room all week together – this girl needed a bit of sanity time.
We arrived home late Friday and that evening was filled with laundry and decompressing. Saturday Bill and I got back to our routine of hitting up the farmer’s market early and just walking around downtown. Stocked up on lots of goodies and enjoyed our fur babies with some lovely walks. Sunday, we decided to drive out to an Amish area and ride our bikes. We got up nice and early (5:30 am), loaded the bikes up and headed out. We rode our furthest distance yet – 31 miles! This is huge for me considering I just started riding about 1.5 months ago. This was my third ride clipping in. Now, Bill told me this was a “rolling hills ride”. Ummmmm yeah, NO! It was totally uphill the entire time. Okay, I may exaggerate a bit but holy hills man my legs were ON FIRE! I did manage to ride through a covered bridge which left me with a bit of pause before I entered – seeing the open slats in between the wood and considering how thin my road bike tires are (insert here: tire stuck, me flying off my bike fear) oh and the Jetta that couldn’t wait for me to ride through alone… Survived that. Lots of horses and buggies carrying the Amish off to church. Lots of horse reminders on the road to dodge. Cows grazing. Sheep. Pigs. Goats. I saw it all, loved it all. Overall, my speed was good- according to Bill and I don’t care because I didn’t fall (yay) and again – further distance yet!
Post ride we came home and took the dogs for a walk. I whipped this dish up to eat this week. I’m having my 3rd surgery on my finger Tuesday. Bone fusion and pins. Lots of paranoia after last year’s debacle when I got a staph infection. So prepping food that I can grab easily while my hand is splinted. I also can run for two weeks – however walking has been given the green light. My doc also thought my bike in a trainer would be good. Praying that’s so! So if I’m a bit MIA – you know why.
Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower – organic is preferred
Olive oil
Spring onions – 4-6 diced with greens
1 handful of fresh parsley diced
1 can of organic chickpeas, washed and drained
1/4 cup of raw whole almonds, halved
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
Wash and dry your cauliflower. Then slice it into smaller florets. Place in batches, into your food processor and pulse until it looks like:
In the meantime, heat some olive oil into a large sauté pan and once hot (medium flame), add your “rice” and cook. I like it more on the dry side so I cook for about 15 minutes- watch closely to avoid burning. Once that’s done cooking I toss in the remaining ingredients and give it a good stir. Serve immediately or place in a tupperware container and store in the refrigerator until ready to consume. Can be eaten warmed or cold.
Fitness update:
Last week I managed to run everyday Monday – Friday:
I was please with my overall time at 7.94 average. I will admit that Friday’s run after running all week then touring all day was a hard one. It seemed virtually impossible to put one foot in front of the other. Bad runs happen. But my total for the July was my highest yet. Very happy. My goal was 130 and I exceeded that.
Overall: 8.03 min mile.
My face post “rolling hill ride”. Considered killing my husband at this point but decided the challenge was a good thing and I love him too much. Ha.
~Robin
oxo
— Knead to Cook