Chicken Salad with Cashew Dressing

The last few days have been absolutely beautiful, warm and sunny at about 28 degrees, Spring is finally on the way! One of the things I love to have in warmer weather is salads. So to have a complete change from all the cozy winter fair I have been cooking lately I decided upon making a chicken salad for dinner tonight. If I may say so myself, it was really good and the dressing was to die for! I just had to share it with you! I had to stop my husband from eating all the dressing before I had even finished cooking, lol! He now wants this as a regular salad for his lunch at work. Even better, this is suitable for the failsafe diet, quick and easy to prepare and would be a great dish to serve if having guests over.

After making the Roast Vegetable and Lentil Soup with the Real Meals Deli Chicken and croutons, I thought those two ingredients would be perfect in a salad. The failsafe diet doesn’t have much choice when it comes to salad vegetables, they are all high in Salicylates and Cos and other fancy lettuces are moderate Salicylates. So I like to try to find anyway to make an ordinary salad just that little bit special.

Chicken Marinade:
3 x chicken breast, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablspoons maple syrup

Marinade chicken in the garlic and maple syrup while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Dressing:
150g cashews
90g (1/4 cup) maple syrup
200g water
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 shallot
Mix all ingredients in the Thermomix on speed 9 for 1 minute. Set aside.

If doing in a blender, blend until you get a smooth consistency.

Salad ingredients:
Make the croutons and deli chicken ‘bacon’ from the Roast Vegetable and Lentil Soup recipe.

Cook hard boiled eggs. Enough for everyone in your family, I allowed 1 ½ eggs per person. Either cook them on the stove in boiling water to your desired yolk preference, or in the Thermomix. I cooked mine according to the directions in the Thermomix EDC, placing them in the basket with 500ml of water at Varoma temp for 12 minutes on speed 1.
Immerse eggs into cold water to stop the cooking process. Peel and slice in half.  

Cook the chicken in a frying pan until cooked through and nicely browned.

To assemble:  
Iceberg lettuce. 

Rip up the lettuce into small pieces and scatter into bowls. 
Spoon the cooked chicken  over the lettuce. 
Add the egg and pour a generous amount of cashew dressing over the top. 
Next sprinkle with the deli chicken bacon and croutons. 
Serve. 

Tips: 
This salad would also work in a large salad bowl for people to serve themselves. 
Store any left over Cashew Dressing in a jar in the fridge.