Healthy Lunch : Kale, Brown Rice, Hummus

I’ve done it again.  I’ve fallen in love with a vegetarian style lunch.  Make that a vegan style lunch this time actually, this dish has no cheese or any other kind of dairy, nor does it have animal protein of any sort.  It is comprised of some of the biggest staples in the vegan and vegetarian diet actually, which are brown rice, wild rice, kale and hummus.  Heck, hummus is a favorite of vegetarians, vegans and carnivores alike.

Hummus is pretty universal, and if you buy or make the kind that only uses oil very sparingly, or not at all, then you are also eating a very low fat, low calorie meal that is satisfying as well.  Oh yeah, did I mention that it bursts with flavor also?  That’s all important as we know, since it is when our tastebuds are bored that we start to go for the most fatty, sugary and flavorful foods that also happen to be the least healthy for us.  How is that?

Well, we are creatures that were born to love food, and we have certain pleasure chemicals that go off allover our body when we eat tasty food, so it only makes sense that would biologically drive us to the tastiest foods, naturally.

So, here’s my awesome, low fat, healthy and fiber filled lunch recipe for a vegan, super cleansing meal.  And it doesn’t leave you feeling stuffed or lethargic afterwards as a lot of other lunch foods can, which is a huge bonus if you take this to work with you for your lunch.

You start off with cooking half wild rice and half brown basmati or whole brown rice.  I prefer to cook mine in a rice cooker as it yields the most perfectly cooked and fuss free brown rice you can make, and you don’t have to be around to cook it, you just throw the water or broth and the rice in the proper measurements in, and leave it alone til it’s done.

I like to cook mine in a vegetable broth, it gives it more flavor and texture.  Then, I take a small zuccini, about half of it, and cube it.  I place this in a steamer along with shredded fresh kale, and lightly steam these two veggies.  These will top my rice, along with a few other goodies that round out this veggie filled lunch.  I also dice fresh tomatoes.

I buy a hummus (or you can make your own) that contains 30 calories per 2 TB.  Some hummus can be double this amount of calories because it’s loaded with oil. Choose one that is made with only tahini, garbanzo beans and other non oil ingredients (but nothing unnatural of course!)

I put about 4 TB of hummus on top of mine, a little sea salt, the veggies and the diced tomatoes, and voila, you have a very filling, healthy fiber and nutrition filled lunch that you can eat day after day because it’s SO good!