THAI SALAD
Serves 8
This salad is versatile, fresh and packed with flavor!! Other great ingredients to add are mangos, sprouts or avocados. Enjoy getting creative.
Choice of protein: (½ pound flank steak, or 1 lb ground pork, turkey or chicken or 1 ½ lb wild salmon fillet, or 2 large organic chicken breasts)
Marinade:
2 tablespoon olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup tamari (soy sauce)
Juice of 1 lime
Salad:
1 cup diced cucumber
½ cup shredded carrot (about 3-4 carrots)
¼ cup thinly sliced green onion (1 bunch)
¼ cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup coarsely chopped Thai basil leaves (regular basil can be used)
Shredded butter lettuce or romaine lettuce
¼ cup chopped mint
1 garlic clove, minced
Juice of 1 lime
¼ cup Thai sweet chili sauce
6 tablespoons fish sauce
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 Tablespoons olive oil
½ cup blister peanuts (trader joe’s)
To marinate steak, salmon, or chicken breast: Mix oil, garlic, tamari and juice of 1 lime. Pour over flank steak, chicken or salmon in marinade. Refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.
To cook ground pork, ground turkey or ground chicken: No marinade needed. To cook, add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pan, to coat the bottom. Cook ground meat with minced garlic, then add lime juice and tamari and cook until all the juices are gone.
To cook steak or salmon: Discard marinade. Heat a heavy sauté pan over medium-high heat and sear the beef or salmon about 5 minutes per side until medium rare. Peel skin of fish if present. Cut beef into thin slices across the grain or shred the salmon fillet.
To cook chicken breasts: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake chicken for 40 minutes with marinade.
Salad: In large bowl, combine the cucumber, carrot, green onion, cilantro and basil in a bowl. Add shredded lettuce to bowl and mix. In a separate bowl, combine the lime juice, mint, sweet chili sauce, fish sauce, vinegars, minced garlic and oils to make the dressing.
Toss the salad with dressing and then Top with your protein of choice and sprinkle salad with peanuts. Drizzle each salad with a little more dressing. Garnish with whole sprigs of cilantro and lime wedges.
