Chickpea Jalapeño potato salad

Chickpea Jalapeño potato salad

Lorraine Elliott, who is also known as Not Quite Nigella inspired this meal. This is her recipe with a few additions from me.

Ingredients

• Potatoes
• Kewpie wasabi mayonnaise
• White onion
• Pickled sliced jalapeño peppers
• Chilli
• Tinned chickpeas
• Spring onion
• Iodised salt
• Whole black peppercorns

Instructions

1. Boil the spuds until you can use a long sharp tool and penetrate the skin and flesh easily with no resistance.
2. Remove the boiled spuds from the water and refrigerate overnight to permit the formation of resistant starch.
3. Smile knowing my microbiota will be grateful (if bacteria were sentient).
4. The next night, cut the cold boiled spuds into bite-sized pieces with a sharp knife.
5. Put the spuds into a large mixing bowl and then squirt in some Kewpie Wasabi mayonnaise and a small handful of pickled sliced jalapeño peppers.
6. Finely dice a white onion and add the chopped onion to the mixing bowl.
7. Finely slice the spring onion and add the spring onion to the mixing bowl.
8. Add in the tin of chickpeas because legumes are also useful for my microbiota.
9. Gently mix everything to avoid disintegrating the spuds.
10. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix.
11. Peel the shells from the prawns and undertake a colectomy to remove the alimentary canal.
12. Transfer everything to a serving bowl and garnish with some peeled prawns.
13. Grab a fork, take the bowl, sit in front of the TV, and watch a movie while enjoying the potato salad.

What movie did I watch?

I watched one of my favourite movies, viz., Chariots of Fire. I love the story of Eric Liddell and how he put God and principles before King and country.

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What’s all the microbiota talk?

Readers who know me know that I like listening to books. I’m not much of a reader of books, but I’ll happily listen to a book. 

I’m a fan of the Audible app and buying audible books from Amazon. To get more users, Audible has provided some free books to get people in.

One of the recent free offerings has been a 10 episode podcast by Dr Joanna McMillan. Joanna is a nutrition scientist and a practising nutritionist. Check her out at her website.

I think some people assume that we learn everything we need to know in medical school about nutrition. Given I went through medical school from 1983 to 1989 (yes that’s seven years, I did an extra degree during the course) it’s no surprise I’m a bit behind. My interest in our microbiota has been in the context of pathology and infection. It’s only recently, as I’ve endeavoured to improve my health that I’m thinking more about my microbiota.

If you’re interested in gut health, I reckon you’ll enjoy listening to Joanna. Her Scottish accent also helps!

Resistant starch

One topic that Joanna bangs on about is resistant starch. For a good synopsis of resistant starch, you cannot only listen to Joanna, but you can read about it on the CSIRO website.

You’ll see more legumes and raw oats in my Instagram feed in the future.

Potatoes and rice are useful sources of resistant starch if you cook them and then allow them to cool before eating them. That’s why I cooked the spuds yesterday and then refrigerated the potatoes.

How was the potato salad?

It was good. It certainly had a big kick to it with the jalapeño peppers, wasabi mayonnaise, and the red chilli. I split it in half and will finish it off tomorrow night.