Summer always has me looking for new salad recipes. Since I’m definitely not the only one, the New York Times recently did a series of “salad suggestions” – less recipes, and more a list of ingredients that the confident cook can throw together as she pleases. Not wanting to fully trust the NYX though, I went on Woks of Life to double check the dressing ingredients.
I tried it first over a bed of arugula. As yummy as that was (and romaine would have been good too) I found myself hoping that each next bite would somehow have some cold rice noodles in it. So that’s the second “way” for this yummy combo. Dress the arugula (or noodles) in plenty of the dressing first; then drizzle it on top of whatever vegetables you pile on top.
For protein, I quickly grilled a boneless chicken breast and shredded it. You could also do grilled tofu cubes, strips of steak, shrimp …
Dressing: (makes enough for 2 servings)
1-1/2 T sugar
2T hot water
1T fish sauce
1T rice vinegar
1T fresh squeezed lime juice
1 clove garlic (smallish)
1T chopped chili pepper (the only jalapeño I had was mild as could be; so I substituted some chili garlic sauce – maybe just 1/2 teaspoon)
Vegetables:
Pick any 3-5 of these and make little piles of them on top of your greens or noodles:
sliced cucumber (it would probably taste better peeled and cored, but I hate to waste so…)
sliced bell peppers, cut in 1/2 or 1/3 so they’re bite-sized
slivered red cabbage, again cut no longer than 2″, so it’s bite-sized
kohlrabi spirals
shredded carrots
broccoli slaw or even florets
Toppings:
handfuls of basil and mint
crispy fried onions
chopped peanuts (I didn’t have any fried onions; the peanuts might have been too much with them?)