Given her fit physique and excellent shape, Padma Lakshmi can pass for much younger than 52. While she has worked hard to maintain herself, she has never shied away from indulging in good food either. Those who follow her closely must be aware of how big a foodie she is. No matter if she is eating or cooking in the kitchen, her Instagram page is flooded with food-related posts.
She recently shared a simple hack for making a healthy salad at home for snacks and satisfying your evening hunger pangs. Wondering what it was? It was a chickpea and spinach salad. As she mentioned in her Instagram reel, she tried this salad over 20 years ago while working as a model in Madrid. She captioned it "full of protein but tastes like a party" and shared a detailed recipe for the salad with the viewers.
Source: Screengrab of Instagram reel/Padma Lakshmi
She begins by taking some soaked and rinsed chickpeas and adding them to a bowl. To this, she added some chopped scallions and bell peppers along with some spinach leaves and tossed them together with her hand. With a good drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lime juice, she wilted the leaves. She then heats up some black peppercorns in their entire form and grinds them in a mortar and pestle before adding them to the salad bowl for seasoning.
All of this is combined with a spoon to thoroughly infuse the flavour of black pepper with the salad ingredients. Finished off with a sprinkle of kosher salt, the salad can be eaten cold, at room temperature, on toast, or with steamed rice as well. This healthy, high-protein salad ensures that you are eating your greens too.