ELLE food bloggers Laura Jackson & Alice Levine show us why veggie is often best. 

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Here at J&L HQ we love to eat vegetarian. We find it a lot quicker and easier to throw together some roasted veg or assemble a salad than making sure our steak is the right shade of pink. That's why were happy to support #nationalvegetarianweek and give you a recipe for the perfect summer salad!

We are big fans of a little French cafe in NYC called 'Gitane' - it's the perfect Manhattan lunch spot to people watch whilst eating their legendary avocado on toast (it's worth the plane ride for this alone). It was Gitane that introduced us to 'heart of palm'  - the inner core and bud of certain palm trees - and it's delicious. Available from all supermarkets in the tinned veg isle, it gives any salad the wow factor... Gitane style, of course.

Chicory, Palm Heart, Blood Orange And Avocado Salad

Serves 4

Buy It

4 Chicory bulbs (red or green)

2 Avocados

Juice of 1 Lemon

2 Blood Oranges - peeled and cut into segments

1 tin of Palm Heart (we like green giants)

Chilli Flakes

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Good Salt And Pepper

Make It

Use a spoon to scoop out the avocado into a bowl, squeeze a little lemon juice on top to stop them going brown

Wash and slice the palm hearts, add to the avocado

Wash the chicory and peel off the leaves, add to the bowl along with the segmented orange, olive oil, salt and pepper 

Mix together. The avocado should have softened and the juices of the orange slightly marinated the chicory

Squeeze the remaining lemon juice on the salad and sprinkle with chilli flakes. And serve 

Keep up with Jackson & Levine on Instagram and find more recipes @ELLEUK #ELLEeats