Plant based Protein Recipe: Savory Chickpea Salad
Simple and healthy, not to mention savory and satisfying. I love the taste of salad with cucumbers and chickpeas but they also cause a lot of bloating and gas when eaten raw or cold. Ayurvedically speaking, it is a Vata increasing food, meaning increasing air and space elements in the body. Naturally, bloating and gas would be the result.
Although it’s not a bad option in the summer, if your digestion is not optimal then the recipe needs to be modified to help you metabolize what you eat. Taking a page out of Ayurveda, and Indian cuisine, adding spices not only enhances flavor but also helps to digest your food by increasing Agni or digestive fire.
Chickpeas cooked, eaten cold also have resistant starch which is not digested in the small intestines but broken down in the colon and helps the colonic flora producing butyrate which is good for the healthy bacteria. Since it is not broken down in the small intestines it does not raise glucose levels much and also lowers the demand for insulin. (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/11/16/ask-the-expert-legumes-and-resistant-starch/). A lot of studies are done about the value of resistant starch in diabetes and obesity.
Try the following recipe:
Serving Size 1 cup Servings per Recipe 4 Calories: 120 Kcals/serving
Rich in fiber, potassium and Plant based Protein
