Looking for a meat-free lunch that is under 200 calories? Healthista’s meat free Monday recipe series can help – today it’s an easy five-minute low-cal watermelon and feta salad from The Fast Days cookbook
The Fast Days Cookbook by Laura Herring is packed full of recipes to help you eat low-cal meals when you’re fasting on the 5:2 diet. If your fast day happens to be a Monday – we can help. Here is our favourite meat-free recipe from this brilliant book, a watermelon and feta salad.
Watermelon juice provides a sweet dressing for this creamy, salty, crunchy, fresher-than-fresh-tasting salad. This is a great one to pack up and take to work – the red onion will mellow beautifully with the watermelon by lunchtime, and you can’t be sad with a bowl of bright red fruit to eat! Better than a shop- bought sandwich any day of the week.
serves 2
400 g (14 oz/ 3 cups) watermelon chunks*
1⁄2 small red onion, very finely sliced
1⁄2 small red chilli, very finely chopped
8 mint leaves, shredded
zest of 1 lime
90g (3 1⁄4 oz/ 2⁄3 cup) low-fat feta
To make
Put the watermelon chunks and juice in a bowl. Gently mix in the onion, chilli and mint leaves. Scatter over the feta and grate over the lime zest. Ta-dah!
Laura Herring is a cookery writer, editor and food consultant. She has worked with many of today’s top food writers, bloggers, stylists and chefs around the world, including Mary Berry, Rachel Khoo, James Martin and Tom Kerridge.
The Fast Days Cookbook: Delicious and Filling Low-Calorie Recipes for the 5:2 Diet by Laura Herring Diet (Hardie Grant, £12.99) Photography © Danielle Wood
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