15-minute recipe: Stir-fried curly kale, almonds, chorizo and poached egg
A light, superfood-based lunch to repair muscles and complement your training diet
Glossy, tender and mild in flavour, ‘superfood’ curly kale contains six times more calcium and seven times more vitamin A than broccoli, as well as heaps of vitamin C (100g of the cooked leaves providing 55% of an adult’s RDA).
With a poached egg on top, toasted almonds and a little chorizo or pancetta, it makes a supremely delicious immunity-boosting light meal or lunch to complement your training diet. Cheap, packed with protein to build and repair muscles and rich in essential vitamins and minerals, eggs are a fabulous convenience food for athletes. Mop up the yolk with a generous hunk of crusty wholemeal bread to help replenish depleted energy stores if you plan to eat this post workout.
Serves: 4
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 10mins
Equipment: 2 x wide, shallow saucepans or deep frying pan
Ingredients
50g flaked almonds
100g pancetta or chorizo, chopped into pieces (optional)
1tbsp olive oil and a small knob of butter
200g curly kale
1 small clove garlic, very finely sliced
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper
4 free-range eggs (as fresh as possible)
Dried chilli flakes to serve (optional)
Step 1
Add the almonds to a large frying pan and dry-roast over a gentle heat, moving them around the pan with a spatula until they’re light brown. Remove and set aside.
Step 2
Add the chopped chorizo, if using, and sauté until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the almonds.
Leave the oil from the chorizo in the pan and gently sauté the garlic (you’ll need to add a drop of sunflower oil if you’re not using chorizo), until lightly golden, taking care not to burn it. Again, remove and set aside with the almonds and chorizo.
Step 3
Wipe the pan clean with kitchen paper and then, over a gentle heat, melt the butter with the oil. Add the curly kale and a couple of tbsps of water. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and stir-fry for a few minutes until the kale is tender and a glossy, vibrant green. Return the almonds, chorizo and garlic to the pan and toss together with the kale.
Step 4
Meanwhile, pour boiling water into a wide saucepan and bring it to a very gentle simmer. Add a pinch of salt and a drop of vinegar. Crack one of the eggs into a small ramekin/cup and gently pour it into the water. Repeat with the rest of the eggs. Cook for around 2mins, depending on the size of the eggs, until the whites are cooked but the yolks are still soft.
Arrange the curly kale on four warmed plates and then remove each egg with a slotted spoon and carefully place on top of the kale. Sprinkle with a few dried chilli flakes, some sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper, and serve immediately.
Nutrition per serving:
Energy: 358kcal
Protein: 22g
Carbs: 7g
Sugars: 1.5g
Fat: 28g
Saturates: 6.8g
Salt: 1g
Fibre: 3g
(Images: Ewelina Karbowiak)
For lots more fuelling advice head to our Nutrition section
Jamie Beach
Former digital editor 
