Broccoli, asparagus and green bean salad, with tahini dressing

This is the perfect summer superfood salad recipe for menopause, it’s packed with healthy nutrients and the tahini dressing adds a wonderful citrus, sweet taste. A scattering of nuts and seeds means you’ll get your fair share of protein too.

Broccoli is our go-to vegetable of choice. Nutritionally, it's a great source of vitamins A, C and K, as well as calcium.

Renowned for its cleansing and healing properties, asparagus is high in folic acid and a good source of potassium, vitamins A, B6, and C as well as thiamine (B1).

Serves:          4

Prep time:     10 minutes

Cook time:     15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 broccoli head, cut into bite size florets

• 250g asparagus, woody ends snapped off

• 250g fine beans, trimmed

• handful of toasted almonds, chopped

• 1 clove garlic, crushed

• Handful of pumpkin seeds, toasted

• 1 Romaine lettuce, torn

  Tahini dressing

• 2 tbsps tahini

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1 clove garlic, crushed

• 1 tsp maple syrup

• 2 tbsp water

• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Make the tahini dressing by measuring the tahini, lemon juice, crushed garlic and maple syrup into a small jug or jar. Add the water to make it smooth and pourable then add freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to taste. Store in the fridge until needed.

2. Steam the broccoli, fine beans and asparagus until just tender. It might be a good idea to steam the vegetables separately as they all vary in cooking time. Refresh under cold water in a colander and allow the vegetables to drain and cool.

3. Arrange the salad leaves on a large serving plate.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan and add the crushed garlic, once heated toss the vegetables to coat in the garlic oil, fry for about 4 or 5 minutes and remove from the heat and place on top of the salad leaves.

5. Drizzle the dressing over the vegetables.

6. Toast the flaked almonds in a frying pan over a medium heat for a couple of minutes until slightly browned and scatter over the top and serve.

7. Toast the almonds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for a couple of minutes until slightly coloured, transfer to a bowl to cool. Then toast the pumpkin seeds until they begin to pop. Chopped the cooled almonds and scatter over the vegetables along with the pumpkin seeds and serve. This dish can be served warm or cooled.