This recipe is the starter dish of my Delhaize Luxembourg sponsored healthy 2-course menu on a tight budget for two people. As a starter dish I created a delicious avocado mussels salad. Here you’ll find the links to the main article and the main course.
Avocado Mussels Salad with crema di balsamico
Delhaize
Delhaize is collaborating with people food bloggers. I managed to become one of the people in Luxembourg who can participate in this project. Therefore I am very happy to present to you articles and recipes that are sponsored by Delhaize Luxembourg.
On a monthly basis, Delhaize hands out a food challenge, specifying the general outline of what has to be done this particular month. This could be the ingredients, a theme or similar things. But also the budget or which brand to use (e.g. the house brand).
Delhaize Food Challenge
For the January/February 2017 challenge, the given theme was “New Year’s Resolution“, i.e. creating a healthy recipe for all you food enthusiasts who fancy getting in shape after the holiday season. Furthermore, they ask to mainly use products of their home brand and set a budget and I’m free to use this amount within the guidelines.
Delhaize “Extra” Products
This time they added another layer to the rules, asking to use also products with their special “extra” label. Products with the “extra” label are considered especially healthy compared to a traditional alternative. Depending on the product they might be:
- Rich in vitamin C
- Low in sugar
- Rich in minerals such as iron, magnesium or calcium
- Low in fat
- Rich in fiber
- Low salt
This isn’t a new strategy. Delhaize adopted it a few years ago and put the health topic at the core of their strategy. With constant improvements of their products, both in general quality and ingredients used, they try to encourage their customers to live a healthier life by eating better.
While this sounds like a lot of corporate marketing, in my personal opinion I have always been satisfied with the products of the Delhaize brand. And because I am a big proponent of eating healthy and well balanced I wouldn’t participate in those sponsored challenges anymore if I’d didn’t enjoy their products.
Here is the product I used in this recipe containing the special label:
Healthy 2-course menu EXTRA
That being said, it’s always up to you to eat healthy, clean and well balanced! The best product isn’t worth much if you neglect other areas (i.e. not enough physical activity, smoking, too much alcohol or other drugs) or overeat on a single product. For instance, a well-balanced granola might be considered healthy, but if you eat a kilo a day then you should reconsider your eating habits (unless you’re hiking 30km every day 😉 )
Avocado Mussels Salad
When I did my shopping for this month challenge, I gathered more and more items in my basket. I actually wanted to only do a surf and turf dish, with some turf and double surf. In the end, the recipe wouldn’t have made any sense, would have been too overcrowded and just not that good.
Surf and Turf – Avocado Mussels Salad – Protein
So I retweaked my surf and turf idea and ended up having two dishes. That’s how the avocado mussels salad made it into the challenge. It’s not your typical salad, as it doesn’t have a dressing on its own and is relatively warm.
I personally like warm salads very much, especially if I use arugula. When the arugula leafs get warm they get a slightly more intense taste, while on the same time losing part of their bitterness. On top of that it’s a salad that can handle a little heat rather well, meaning the leaves don’t crumble instantly with the heat and they keep their crispy texture.
The avocado and the sunflower seeds give another layer of texture and fill you up with plenty of great macro and micro nutrients. This would be mainly healthy fats, up to 20 different vitamins and they also make a good source of potassium.
Then we have of course the main protein source, the mussels (=muscles 😉 ). You can use any type of mussels you want or can get. I used pre-cooked mussels in order to make the recipe easier. The mussels only need only to be reheated to get their full flavour potential. Mussels are also low in calories, so you can have plenty of them and load up on all the micro nutrients they come with. As per 100g this looks like this (depending on which mussels you use):
| Vitamin A | 6% | Vitamin C | 22% |
| Calcium | 3% | Iron | 37% |
| Vitamin B-6 | 5% | Vitamin B-12 | 400% |
| Magnesium | 9% |
Avocado Mussels Salad
I hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as I did. Try it out and share your experience in the comments section. I am definitely going to look forward to your feedback!
- 200 g mussels, pre-cooked
- 100 g arugula
- 125 g mushrooms
- 1 small onion
- 1 medium tomatoe
- 2 tsp sunflower seeds already peeled
- olive oil for cooking
- 1/2 avocado
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- cut the mushrooms, the onion and the tomato into pieces and fry them with some olive oil on medium heat for around 7-8 minutes.
- wash the mussels and add them to the pan and continue frying everything for another 2 to 3 minutes. In case the ingredients seem to dry, simply add a little bit of water.
- add the seasining mix to the pan and stir occassionally.
- peel the half avocado and cut it in small pieces and set aside.
- place the arugula in a bowl and add the mix from the pan on top of it.
- finish it with some sun flower seeds and the avocado.
- Optional: if you want to sprinkle some balsamic cream over the salad.