The Food I Eat

Guest recipe: Greg's Turbo Salad

Right now, the Oxbridge boys preparing for the boat race will be knocking back 6,000 calories a day. If you think that’s a lot, then Michael Phelps regularly wolfs down 10,000 calories a day which is a feat in itself.

Extraordinary really, that no matter how small a salad I limit myself to, or how much I yomp around London on foot, I keep getting squishier, while professional athletes force down three times as many calories than me, and they keep getting…tighter!

As my brother (cricket pro) pointed out this weekend, the calories that athletes consume don’t come from an entire wheel of cheese and a bottle of wine, but carefully selected food to maximise performance (….this might have something to do with recent squishiness!)

I thought that cricket didn’t involve much more than the occasional trot between the wickets, or raising of the arm to catch a ball, but apparently it does - the Leicestershire team has their own nutritionalist, and diet plan to keep them the lads in fighting form.

As far as I could work out, the idea of the diet plan is to eat lots of protein heavy, nutritional food. My brother has interpreted this in the form of a ‘Turbo Salad’ - the ultimate Man Salad. If you’re thinking of doing any sort of activity (more than a schlep round Haggerston Park) then I highly recommend you try it to get all buoyed up and ready to take on the world.

Ingredients
Rocket salad
Cherry tomatoes
Meat (of any genre…)
Bacon
Avocados
Crumbly stilton
Buffalo mozzarella
Walnuts
Olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Poached egg

Start of by sorting out the base meat of the salad. There (weirdly) happened to have some turkey leg in the fridge that had been marinating in balsamic vinegar and coriander. You can use beef and chicken too – though try and avoid pork as it’s generally a bit fattier.

Start grilling the bacon.

While it’s cooking, put the salad leaves in a big dish. Halve the cherry tomatoes, cut the avocado, mozzarella, and crumble the stilton, and then add it all, along with the walnuts and sliced bacon.

Drizzle the oil and balsamic vinegar over the leaves, and toss the salad. Put individual portions onto plates, and then place a poached egg on top for that extra protein hit. Enjoy!