Asian salad with Thai citrus dressing

Posted by on Jan 18, 2013 in Salads and Vegetables | 2 comments

Asian salad with Thai citrus dressing

I have not turned on my stove for a couple of weeks now. Absolutely no cooking. I had travel, issues to deal with but, importantly just didn’t feel like it. So we have eaten fruit, pantry assembled sandwiches, frozen meals, left overs that I freeze for a so-called rainy/sick day. I resumed my cooking and back in my kitchen last night. It felt really good.

After eating warm soups an  stewy dishes since Thanksgiving we were getting a little tired of squashes, brussels sprouts etc. I was looking for something crunchy and cool to serve. I made this salad with Asian veggies: bean sprouts, pea shoots and colorful peppers.

We paired the salad veggies with a dressing that had Thai inspired ingredients: Lime juice, garlic, ginger, bird’s-eye chillies, fish sauce and agave. Fish sauce is optional, omit if you are a vegetarian and add soy sauce for the salty Asian flavor. Peanuts are optional too if you have allergies or just don’t like them omit or you could use sesame seeds or any other nuts you like.

Pea shoots are crunchy, sweet and mimic mung bean sprouts in taste. They add super nutrition and a beautiful green color to the salad. If you have a hard time finding pea shoots, substitute baby spinach leaves or watercress.

Here is the recipe

Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
  • 3 cups mung bean sprouts, rinsed with cold water and drained
  • 4 oz pea shoots
  • handful of sugar snap peas ends top and tailed
  • 1/2 each yellow, red pepper sliced thinly
  • dressing
  • juice from 2 limes, should yield about 1/4 cup of juice
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon agave or honey
  • 1-2 chopped hot chillies or 1 tsp Sirachi sauce
  • 1-2 cloves garlic minced finely
  • 1 inch piece ginger minced finely
  • 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 1 tsp fish sauce or soy sauce
  • handful of roasted peanuts (optional)
  • salt, please taste the dressing before adding. Fish sauce or soy sauce is very salty naturally.
Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl add all the ingredients for dressing except peanuts.
  2. Whisk till well blended.
  3. Add the vegetables and toss well. Serve right away topped with chopped roasted peanuts.
  4. * The acid from the citrus and salt from soy or fish sauce cooks the veggies and wilts them. So its important to serve as soon as you assemble the salad.

  • http://twitter.com/ohmyveggies Oh My Veggies

    I’ve never had pea shoots before, but I’ve been meaning to try them. I love a nice, light salad for lunch and this one looks perfect!

    • Meera

      Try Trader Joe’s, they have them now. Please let me know what you think of it’s texture. It’s now my favorite greens.