Tangled Thai Rainbow Salad
Mr. Wonderful and I recently did a 21-day Daniel Fast plan and that means we are basically ate a plant-based diet for 21 days (I strive now to make it a habit, although adding back in some lean protein later on). I can tell that while the first week was rough, I felt great after that and loved the energy I had on this diet!
Our reasons for this were two-fold, the first being spiritual and the second being physical.
Did I mention that we could only have water to drink? The precise list reads “Drinks: filtered water, spring water, distilled water.
Period.
The second night I went to bed with a raging headache from coffee withdrawal. It was awful!
Anyway, I tried to be more creative than just putting out some boring vegetables so the first Sunday, I made a HUGE pot of vegetable soup to reheat for a few days. That night I wanted an interesting salad to go with it. Poor Mr. Wonderful! He came home from work with this ravaged look on his face and grabbed a fork and dug right into the serving bowl when he saw the salad and exclaimed how delicious it was!
Now, mind you, he was starving so his comments could be a bit tainted, but really, this salad is a-MAZ-ing!
If you love the flavors of Thai – sweet, sour and spicy, you will LOVE this salad!
And I found another use for my spiralizer.
The spiralizer.
The spiralizer is a quirky piece of equipment that turns vegetables into noodles. Such brilliance.
The one I purchased cost about $20 on Amazon but you can also get one that will will work a bit slower for around $10. If you have a julienne peeler, you can also get similar results although it’s a bit more tedious.
For this salad, I used raw zucchini for my base of noodles. I also wanted to use a raw sweet potato but didn’t have one in the house. I used the smallest noodle plate on the spiralizer and locked my zucchini in. Once I turned the crank handle, I soon had a large bowl of zucchini noodles (I used 2 medium-sized zucchini)!
I also cut up one-half of a red pepper into really thin strips, then cut them across into ½ inch pieces as well as julienne peeling 2 medium-sized carrots. I can’t figure out how to spiralize them for the life of me! I also ribbon cut shredded about 2 cups of kale (2 cups cut). If you think you don’t like kale (you may substitute baby spinach or chopped spinach if you like!), you probably haven’t chopped it correctly! Stack the leaves on top of each other and cut them as thinly across as you can. I added in 1 cup or so of bean sprouts and 3 chopped green onions (green and white). I also added about 1/2 cup of shredded red cabbage but forgot to take a picture.
Edamame come now shelled in frozen bags which sure saves me SO MUCH TIME!
I ran one cup of these under warm water to thaw, kind of like you would do with frozen peas for a salad.
And just for kicks, I thinly julienned two radishes, because I had them on hand. The last thing I did before making the dressing was to chop up a good bunch of cilantro, probably roughly around ½ to 2/3 cup. All of this went into a bowl together.
For the dressing, I used my Thai Peanut Sauce dressing. I left the sugar out due to our fast, but you could make it just exactly like it is. If Chile Oil is hard for you to find (look for it in the Asian aisle), you can just use red pepper flakes.
Pour the dressing over the vegetables.
Toss REALLY well!
Just before you serve it, sprinkle it with some shaved almonds or sunflower seeds.
And then dig in!
It’s so good. What a great way to cleanse!
- 2 medium-sized zucchini
- 2 medium-sized carrots or 1 medium sweet potato
- ½ red pepper
- 1 c. bean sprouts
- 2 c. shredded kale
- ½ c. Shredded red cabbage
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 c. shelled edamame, thawed
- ½ -2/3 c. cilantro, chopped
- 2 radishes, julienned
- ½ c. shaved almonds or sunflower seeds
- ½ c. natural peanut butter
- 2 T. apple cider vinegar
- 1 t. minced or grated ginger
- ? t. crushed red pepper flakes
- ¼ c. brown sugar or ¼ c. honey (optional)
- ¼ t. minced garlic
- ½ t. chili oil (optional)
- 1 t. Sesame oil
- 1 c. water (to thin to liking)
- Spiralize, julienne peel or thinly cut zucchini and carrots into bowl.
- Thinly slice red pepper then cut across the slices to make ½ inch pieces. Add to bowl
- Add bean sprouts to bowl
- Stack kale leaves and thinly slice across the leaves to make shreds and add to bowl.
- Thinly slice and then chop red cabbage
- Chop green onions and add to bowl.
- Rinse edamame under warm water until thawed and add to bowl.
- Add radishes to bowl.
- Chop cilantro and add to bowl.
- Make Peanut dressing (follows) and add to bowl. Toss salad well and sprinkle almonds or sesame seeds over top just before serving.
- FOR THE PEANUT DRESSING
- In a small saucepan, whisk all ingredients but water for the Peanut Dipping Sauce over low heat until heated through.
- Drizzle in water until sauce is consistency of mayonnaise and lightens in color.
See what other fabulous food bloggers are making for Food Network’s Spring Sensational Sides using spring green!
Creative Culinary: Mixed Greens with Smoked Mozzarella and a Warm Roasted Garlic Dressing
The Cultural Dish: Three Quick and Easy Salad Recipes
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Salad Greens with Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette
Red or Green: Salad Greens with Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette
The Heritage Cook: Chopped Steakhouse-Style Salad (Gluten-Free)
Weelicious: Southwestern Salad
Taste with the Eyes: Teacher Appreciation Farmers Market Salad
Swing Eats: Kale Salad with Lemon, Pecorino Romano, and Toasted Walnuts
Virtually Homemade: Spinach and Bacon Salad
Domesticate Me: 8 Gorgeous Green Salads for Spring
Elephants and the Coconut Trees: Arugula and Grapefruit Salad
Dishin & Dishes: Tangle Thai Rainbow Salad
Homemade Delish: Grilled Pineapple Spinach Salad
FN Dish: Why Side Salads Are the Best Salads
3 Comments
Karen
January 7, 2015 at 7:35 am
Katie
January 9, 2015 at 8:54 am
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