A dear dear friend, let’s call her CKE, hates greens. She says she’s not a rabbit, and to linger too long at the salad table is to invite an eyeroll from her. But I bet this is one salad she would like. CKE, I present to you, the avocado and roast chicken salad at Qlea juice.
Sight
I had visited Qlea juice the day before and had a look at the menu. There was one avocado filled salad I thought I would like but on the next day, we couldn’t find it. I had to go into describing it as they flipped through the menu to repeated no’s from me.
“Avocado arranged in a circle. Yes with olives, yes and chicken.” Finally we found it and they started to prepare it.
“Put the avocado in circles.” I heard the gentleman in the kitchen say. For some reason that made me laugh. Those kitchen guys at Qlea juice were nice.
While I think the black olives would have been better for a visual contrast, they were out of stock so we went with the green ones.
Taste
If you would like to stop reading at this point, I will summarize and say the salad was exploding with flavor.
Seldom have I eaten a meal so full of surprises.
Avocado was cool, the olives tangy and the chicken…you can always count on chicken, to be chicken but this one was uniquely flavored. I think the marinade used was very interesting.
The whole thing was quite zesty. You might want to ask them to take the salt down a notch during prep if you are not a fan.
As a chilli lover, I was intrigued to find that there were hints of that heat. Only very mild hints. It was that aroma and flavor of chilli in your mouth before it gets fiery hot. It feels like when you want to sneeze, and then you don’t sneeze.
On the second fork full, you will discover some chewy sweet corn. And as you fork through the salad you will find that there is a neatly arranged layer of cabbage and some peppers to perhaps balance out the softness of the avocado up top.
You might think that that is all the salad has to offer, but there is more. There is a dash of barely visible pineapple that will make you feel like you’re eating a new salad. And when you pick up a dash of sweet mango, you will, again, feel like you’re eating a new salad.
Amazingly, all these things work beautifully together. This salad is so good, especially if you have been having a decadent day as I had been.
Please know that this a full meal.
Touch
The salad has different textures; soft avocado, crunchy sweet corn and cabbage, firm and juicy chicken.
NB: Other sights
There’s a nursery bed right next to Qlea juice in Jinja that grows stevia. The natural stevia is a sweetner that has almost no calories. Yup. If you grow it in your garden, or in a pot, you can pluck those leaves and just drop them in your tea. The lady let me taste one of the tiny leaves and its very sweet.
Pass by Qlea Juice when in Jinja or call them for more info. They deliver in Kampala as well.
The chicken salad goes for about 20k.