Monday, July 1, 2013

No Fuss-Thai Crunch Salad w/ a Spicy Asian Peanut Dressing




Need an easy salad to throw together with almost no prep? 
Something that can feed a crowd for a potluck or BBQ and be enjoyed by all? 
An easy meal to keep in the fridge ready for tossing with dressing for work or quick meals?

Well then this is your salad.

I call it my cheater salad because it's almost too easy. Aside from chopping green onions, which is completely optional, all you really need to make this salad is a big bowl and pair of scissors… for opening the bags. It's a staple in our rotation and delicious!

It utilizes pre prepped salad bags from your grocer and while I use a ready made dressing from Trader Joe's, I have also included an easy to make raw version as well for those not fortunate to have a TJ's nearby.

Thai Crunch Salad


Ingredients:

A bag of butter lettuce, with radichio if possible
A bag of shredded green cabbage
A bag of broccoli slaw
A bag of shredded carrots
Shelled and cooked edamame
1/2 cup cashews, preferably unsalted and raw
1-2 green onions, white and greens chopped, optional if choosing no prep version
12 ounces of Asian Spicy Peanut Dressing (optional home made version below)

Instructions:

Empty contents of bags into a BIG bowl and toss with clean hands.


Add in the topping bits and toss gently again or leave on the side for self serving.


If serving right away, go ahead and add dressing and toss. If serving a crowd all at once you may need two bottles of dressing, depending on taste preference.

Note: This is about 1/4 of the salad here in this picture.

If storing for later meals you can easy put the un-tossed salad either in bags or jars to add dressing later.




This will make approximately 6 quarts of salad as written here. Add more lettuce to the base if you want to stretch it further.

Mock Peanut Dressing


1/2 cup raw Almond Butter
1/4 cup Water
1 Tbsp fresh Lemon juice
2 tsp Agave or Coconut Nectar or Maple Syrup
2 tsp Tamari
1/2 tsp crushed Garlic (1 clove)
1/4 tsp grated fresh Ginger
dash Cayenne Pepper
dash Sea Salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Store in sealed container in the fridge. Should keep 5 days. Makes 1 cup

Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 PeopleDressing Recipe found in Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 people, which by the way is a really great book!

I haven't ever made something from this book that we did not like.









So there you have it: My Cheater Thai Crunch Salad. I hope you give it a try and come back and let me know how you liked it here in the comments.

I'll be sharing this over at Gluten-Free Cats' Raw Thursday as well as Healthy Vegan Fridays.


NOTE: I have added Recipage to this blog so all recipes can be found indexed and ready for easy printing at the Recipe tab at the top of the page. Enjoy!











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4 comments:

  1. Love this, Jodi. My move has me living close to a Trader Joe's so I look forward to trying this out. One perk is definitely their prepped greens for those too busy for chopping. :-)

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    1. Janet,
      Our life totally changed when TJs moved around the corner. LOL. Love all their produce and nuts and anything with their own name is GMO free. It makes shopping so easy. Congrats on the new hook up!

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  2. Ah, love salads that are simple to make but have such diverse flavors. Big bowl and scissors - loved that! Can't wait to try the dressing. So glad you're sharing it with RFT!

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    1. HI Heather!
      I'm all about salads but sometimes you just need a break from the knife you know?
      Plus I get such a kick out of my friends that venture into healthy food with recipes like this. The easier I can make it, the better the chances of fresh produce ending up on their plates, ours too!

      I'll be posting it next round. :-)
      Thanks for stopping by!

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