Too hot to cook? Try a healthy Grilled chicken salad

If your idea of a virtuous dinner out is ordering the grilled chicken Caesar salad, you should prepare yourself for some disappointment.

These salads may sound light, but they can pack some serious fat and calories. At one restaurant, for example, the grilled chicken Caesar salad serves up more than 1,000 calories and 64 grams of fat.

These salads sound healthy because the basic components are greens and boneless, skinless chicken breast. It's when you dump on buttery croutons, shredded cheese, fatty dressings and crumbled bacon that the trouble starts.

But at home you can make a dinner-sized salad to feel good about. This grilled chicken salad is tossed with a low-fat dressing made with the richly flavoured pulp of roasted garlic - an excellent stand-in for fat.

For this dressing, which can be made up to two days in advance and stored, covered, in the refrigerator, the roasted garlic is puréed with creamy non-fat yoghurt and just a few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil.

The dressing gets an added burst of flavour from a small amount of Parmesan cheese as well as a few anchovy fillets, which are traditional Caesar ingredients.

Pepper-crusted chicken salad with roasted garlic Caesar dressing

Servings: 4

For the dressing:

Ingredients

1 large head garlic

¹/⁴ cup non-fat plain yoghurt

¹/⁴ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbs lemon juice

¹/² tbs white wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 anchovy fillets, rinsed

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

For the salad:

Ingredients

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts trimmed of fat

1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

¹/⁴ tsp salt, or to taste

Ground black pepper, to taste

8 cups washed, dried and torn romaine lettuce

1 cup fat-free croutons

Shredded Parmesan cheese, for garnish (optional)

Lemon wedges

Heat the oven to 400.

Method

1. On a cutting board, using a sharp knife, slice about ¹/² inch off the top of each clove of garlic, exposing the individual cloves.

2. Set each clove on a square of foil and sprinkle with a tablespoon of water. Pinch together the edges of the foil to create a packet. Roast for 45 minutes. Unwrap and let cool slightly before squeezing the pulp from the cloves.

3. In the bowl of a food processor or blender, combine the roasted garlic pulp, yoghurt, cheese, oil, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard and anchovies.

4. Process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, then cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

5. Rub the chicken with oil and season with salt. Coat the outsides heavily with pepper. Grill the chicken until browned and a thermometer reads 165 at the centre.

6. In a large bowl, combine the lettuce and croutons. Toss with ¹/² cup of the dressing, then divide among four plates. Cut the chicken into ¹/²-inch slices and arrange over the salad. Garnish with shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired. Serve immediately, with lemon wedges.

Nutrition information per serving (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 257 calories; 77 calories from fat; 9 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 73 mg cholesterol; 11 g carbohydrate; 33 g protein; 2 g fibre; 519 mg sodium.

- AP

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