Chickpea and Broccoli Rice Bowl with a Dijon Vinaigrette. V. GF.

 

 

 

I’m excited to share a nutritious, protein-packed dinner that you can make in under 15 minutes (with leftover rice or quinoa).  Every Sunday we make a big batch of rice or quinoa for a staple in the week’s dinner recipes and partly for our dog food that we make for our pups.  I always have plenty and this dinner came together so quickly on a fast-paced night. Everyone loved it and actually my husband has been eating leftovers for lunch ever since.  Would be great served warm or at room temperature.  Start thinking about summer parties and this one would be a winner!

Packed with valuable nutrition – this dish can be a side or served as a main dish.  I paired it with grilled tofu and it was so satisfying.
Ingredients:

5 cups or so of broccoli florets, washed and trimmed
2 cans of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
2 cups of leftover rice or quinoa
2 spring onions
Salt and pepper
Fresh herbs are optional.

Vinaigrette:

2-3 tablespoons of Dijon
Maille just sent me this lovely collection of Dijons.  I chose the olive and herbs in this recipe.  Dijon would work perfectly as well.

3 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of a good quality balsamic
1 garlic clove, minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes

Directions:

In a large bowl, add your rice or quinoa.  In a steamer basket, steam your broccoli florets until you can pierce the stem with a knife easily and it’s bright green.  Drain and add to the bowl.

Drain and rinse your chickpeas.  Add to the bowl.

Add your spring onions and fresh herbs if you desire.  I used chives that I had growing in the garden.

For the vinaigrette:

Whisk all of the ingredients together and pour over the top of your bowl ingredients.

Give the bowl a good stir.  Taste and adjust the seasonings.  Serve immediately or refrigerate until needed. Enjoy!

Yesterday’s rest day allowed for some negativity to creep into my head.  Not particularly about the race or my training but afterwards and what would I focus on.  You see I’ve been training for ultras non-stop since June of 2015.  So the what’s next was entering the picture.  I hadn’t been sleeping thanks to my new restless leg medication so I was chalking it up to that.

Today, I had to run my longest training run this cycle.  28 miles.  Daunting, of course but I thought if I was doing 28 why wouldn’t I just do a 50k?  I got up at 3a.  Was out by 345a.  It was brisk but good.  I knew eventually the sun would be up and I would warm up.  I ran into two friends walking at mile 29 so I walked a few minutes with them and then finished it out.  It turns out that I had beaten my October 50k time by 2h41m.  WHAT?????  Now granted, I wasn’t hiking and treading up a muddy mountain but seriously that is a crap load of time!

And hey, I just ran a 50k for a training run!! I am proud.  But with that… tapering begins.

The rest of the week looks like this:
Sunday: 15 miles, outdoors
Monday: 14 treadmill miles, strength training
Tuesday: 13 miles, outdoors – pouring rain but warmer.
Wednesday:  Rest day.
Thursday:  31 miles, outdoors

Make it a great day!

— Knead to Cook