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Healthy Chef Wellness Board
What's great about it
This is my all time favourite dish I make when I'm entertaining with friends for breakfast, lunch or even dinner. At a first glance, my Wellness Board may look a little complicated, but if you look closer - it's really not that hard to create. It's important to have all your miss en place ready to go before assembling. Most of the individual elements can be prepared the day before you need it so your wellness board can be assembled with ease and creativity.
Eggs are a great source of complete protein needed for a healthy immune system, cell growth and tissue repair. Asparagus is a wonderful sources of beta-carotene, Vitamins B1, B2, C, E K, folate and iron. Four cooked spears of fresh Asparagus provide nearly half the daily recommendation for Vitamin K1, which aids bone and blood health. Kale is part of the cabbage family and this wonderful vegetable is a good source of all three antioxidants: beta-carotene and vitamins C and E. Beetroots have been shown to help lower blood pressure and boost exercise performance. This is due to the high nitrate content, which promotes blood flow in the body.
Ingredients
4 organic eggs
1/2 cup almond dukkah
2 bunches asparagus, trimmed
2 large handfuls, kale (washed, trimmed and shredded - see notes)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of sea salt to taste
1/4 cup roasted beetroot and pomegranate relish (see recipe below)
2 sun-ripened tomatoes
2 tablespoons labne (or other cheese, see notes)
few pieces of almond and sunflower lavosh (see recipe below)
If time permits - make your own labne using whole milk organic yoghurt with live cultures, it's so much nicer when you make your own. Labne is a fresh cheese made from strained yoghurt. I love to make this cheese at home and store in quality olive oil and preserved lemon in the fridge. Labne is delicious along side mezzo boards with vegetable based dishes and you can also sweeten with a little honey and vanilla and spread lavishly onto carrot cakes, orange cakes and lemon cupcakes. You can also buy labne from most gourmet grocers or use a good Persian style feta or goats cheese instead. For those who are dairy free, use avocado instead.
Method
- Boil eggs for 6 minutes and cool under cold running water.
- Peel them carefully and set aside.
- Pan-steam the asparagus in a generous splash of water (1/4 cup) for 1 - 2 minutes. Baby asparagus will only need 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Drain any remaining water from the asparagus, turn off the heat and drizzle lightly with a little olive oil and add sea salt to season.
- Sauté the kale in a separate pot over a low heat with a little olive oil or cultured butter until lightly wilted - then set aside.
TO ARRANGE YOUR WELLNESS BOARD:
- Arrange asparagus, kale, tomato, beetroot relish, lavosh and labne between 2 serving boards.
- Roll medium boiled eggs in dukkah and pile any remaining dukkah onto the centre of the board.
- Lay the eggs over the pile of dukkah in the middle of the board.
- Serve immediately. Allow your friends to cut open the eggs themselves.
Notes and Inspiration
ROASTED BEETROOT + POMEGRANATE RELISH
400 g raw beetroot, washed and ends trimmed
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
pinch sea salt
- Wrap beetroot in foil and roast in a moderate 180 C oven until just tender. This depends on the size of your beetroot but allow about 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- Unwrap the foil and remove the outer skin.
- Grate the beetroot and place into a bowl.
- Mix through the pomegranate molasses, lemon and sea salt.
- Refrigerate until needed.
ALMOND + SUNFLOWER LAVOSH
1 cup almond pulp (from your almond milk) or 1 cup fresh ground almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
generous pinch sea salt
handful sunflower seeds
- Combine almond pulp or ground almonds with olive oil, flaxseed and salt until a soft dough forms.
- Rest for 5 minutes.
- Roll dough into a ball and place onto a sheet of baking paper.
- Lay another sheet of baking paper over the top of the dough and flatten lightly with your hands.
- Roll the dough out thinly so it resembles the thickness of crisp bread.
- Remove the top layer of baking paper and sprinkle with sunflower seeds and a little more extra sea salt.
- Transfer sheet onto a baking tray.
- Bake in a low oven 160 C for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden and the edges have started to brown.
- Cool and use as required.