Summer is almost here and it’s a great time to eat raw and fresh produce. One of my favorite food during the hot season is a fresh salad; a healthy colorful salad combined with seeds, nuts, legume, or grains, to make it not only nutritious but also filling and satisfying.

I am going to share with you one of my favorite salads that I created from what I could find in my fridge and around my kitchen. It is healthy, delicious, low calorie, and best of all doesn’t require spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

You can prepare this salad with chicken or without chicken.

In my recipe, I grilled a chicken breast in my Cuisinart electric grill, but you can just buy broiled chicken from supermarket if you are really tight in time.

Shirazi Salad with Chicken (serving 1 person)

(Shirazi salad is a popular Persian salad made with small cubes of cucumber, tomato, onion, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt & pepper. Below is my modified recipe of this salad.)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup diced cucumber

1/2 cup diced tomato

1 tablespoon diced red onion

2 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 clove minced garlic (or dash of garlic powder)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice

4-6 leaves romaine lettuce (about 2 cups chopped)

4 oz. grilled or broiled chicken (about 1/2 a breast)

Dash of salt and pepper.

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients except for lettuce and chicken in a bowl and mix (Shirazi salad). Place lettuce on a plate, add the Shirazi salad and serve it with chicken. Enjoy!

Approx. Calories: 280 (with chicken) OR 160 (without chicken)