Super Healthy Dining at Bumpkin Chelsea

Being a food blogger and a bride-to-be don’t always go hand in hand when you want to make sure you’re going to fit into your dream dress! So when The Handbook asked me to try the Super Healthy menu at Bumpkin, it was the perfect opportunity to eat out without affecting my waistline.

As my Mr Silver is more of ribs ‘n wings type-guy I enlisted my fellow foodie friend Danni to share my  table.

Bumpkin is a mini-chain of restaurants operating in Central London; British produce is central to their food philosophy and they ensure that all ingredients are ethically sourced and sustainable.

Having been to Bumpkin in Kensington, I expected a similar dining room. But I was wrong, Bumpkin isn’t like your average chain of restaurants, each one has an individual style and design. Where Bumpkin Kensington is larger and pub-like, the main dining of Bumpkin Chelsea was rather smaller, cosy and quite romantic with lights twinkling in the window.

And outside there’s a gorgeous little secret garden.

I started with a hydraulic, cold press juice which is intended to provide the body with nutrients via fast delivery of vitamins, mineral and enzymes. I ‘gingerly’ chose the Lean Green Machine which contains green kale, tenderstem broccoli, watercress, Cox apple, lemon, lime, spirulina and ginger.Ok, this drink is going to be very green I thought, and I wasn’t too sure about how juiced broccoli would taste…

I actually loved my emerald cocktail, you could really taste the broccoli but it was a good thing! The drink is apparently highly cleansing and alkalising; I slurped it down, enjoying its green goodness. The waitress offered us the wine list and, though I was tempted, it seemed wrong to counteract the cleansing properties of the juice with a glass of vino! However, all the wines that Bumpkin serve are organic or biodynamic, so just one won’t hurt if you fancy it.

Danni bypassed the hydraulic juices and favoured a refreshing mocktail.

Organic quinoa and seven seed pancake, tenderstem broccoli and cucumber (minus the cucumber which she doesn’t like). All the salads at Bumpkin are vegan or vegetarian but you have the option of adding a protein; Danni chose prawns. Her gluten-free pancakes were delicious and she enjoyed the aniseed flavour that came through. Fantastically, she could fully enjoy a pancake day treat minus the guilt!

I chose a selection of torched smoked garden vegetables with blackened tomatoes, kale and orchard dressing with chargrilled chicken as my protein.

It was no boring chicken salad! I enjoyed the smoky mix of Mediterranean vegetable that were beautifully colourful and perfectly cooked.