Nando's

Yes it's the turn of everyone's favourite chicken emporium tonight and as their main selling point is chicken and it's grilled then the good news is that if you choose the right items you can have an enjoyable meal with low calories and they don't need a specific healthy options range.

For reference the menu pdf is HERE and for nutritional information you just have to click on the little heart with a + in it next to the item HERE and the information appears in the column to the left.

So lets get started.

Starters:

• Spicy Mixed Olives with garlic, pepper, mushroom and chilli - one portion has 133 calories.
• 3 Chicken Wings - one portion has 190 calories.

Mains:

• Chicken Butterfly, chicken breasts in crispy skin - 310 calories per portion
• 1/4  Chicken (Breast) - 309 calories per portion.
• 1/4 Chicken (leg) - 314 calories per portion
• 5 Chicken Wings - 315 calories per portion
• Chicken Breast Fillet Burger - 368 calories per portion
• Chicken Brest Fillet Pita - 364 calories per portion
• Veggie Burger - 443 calories per portion
• Veggie Pita - 439 calories per portion
• Chicken Livers and Portuguese Roll - 469 calories per portion

Mains Salads:

• Avocado and Green Bean Salad: With sweet, roasted red onions and crunchy leaves, tangy dressing, sesame and toasted seeds - 346 calories per portion.
• Mediterranean Salad: Piccolo tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, sweet zingy peppers and mixed leaves in paprika dressing, with olives and feta cheese - 266 calories per portion
• Caesar Salad: Cos lettuce, grated cheese, Caesar dressing and croutons - 287 calories per portion.

Sides:

• Mixed Leaf Salad - 10 calories per portion
• Spicy Rice (Regular) - 273 calories per portion
• Coleslaw (Regular) - 264 calories per portion
• Macho Peas (Regular) - 168 calories per portion
• Corn On The Cob (Regular) - 101 calories per portion
• Corn On The Cob (Large) - 138 calories per portion
• Creamy Mash (Regular) - 270 calories per portion
• Luso Beans - 242 calories per potion
• Ratatouille -108 calories per portion
• Sweet Potato Mash - 248 calories per portion

Dessert:

• Frozen Yoghurt - Black Forest Gateau - 78 calories per portion
• Frozen Yoghurt - Very Berry - 72 calories per portion
• Frozen Yoghurt - Vanilla - 70 calories per portion
• Frozen Yoghurt - Strawberry - 71 calories per portion
• Frozen Yoghurt - Chocolate - 78 calories per portion
• Frozen Yoghurt - Mango - 71 calories per portion
• Nata (Custard Tart) - 168 calories per portion

So as you can see there is plenty to choose from when at Nando's while still keeping your calorie intake down, but as a warning here are some examples of the very high calories foods available here!

• Houmous with Peri-Peri Drizzle with strips of warm pitta - a starter with 825 calories per portion.
• Peri-Peri Nuts - a starter with 628 calories per portion.
• Large Chips - 1241 calories per portion (!).
• Large Garlic Bread - 642 calories per portion.
• Portobello Mushroom and Grilled Halloumi Cheese Burger - 703 calories per portion.
• Carrot Cake - 839 calories per portion.
• Choc-a-Lot Cake - 650 calories per portion.

Also beware of the MyFitnessPal app entries for Nando's (UK) as at some point in the last three months something changed with their chicken portions as originally these were 387 per half a chicken but now it's 623 calories. I'm presuming that they are using bigger chickens or that their nutritional information was massively miscalculated; if anyone knows why this happened please let me know as the half chicken used to be my main source of Nando's products!