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

Dressing 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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Spicy Peanut Zucchini Noodles with Broccoli and Carrots

Slightly spicy peanut and ginger sauce over freshly made zucchini noodles with added broccoli and carrots.  Doesn't that sound good? 

I thought so.

I was perusing through a new book by the producers of the must see film, Forks Over Knives called applicably, Forks Over Knives, the Cook Book, when I ran across this recipe by Julieanna Hever.

First let me say, if you are looking for inspiration with a plant based diet, there are a lot of great looking recipes in this book- 300 to be exact. This one was the first to make me get up out of my chair and actually make a shopping list.

Bonus: This is good hot, cold and even raw. You can't go wrong.

The recipe calls for brown rice noodles but I decided to up the veggie content and go with fresh zucchini instead. I also added some carrot shreds and garnish. You could make this totally raw if you prefer but I did steam the veggies and veggie noodles to lessen the crunch and chewing.

For the raw version, just forget the stove instructions. And of course you can substitute a cooked noodle of your choice for the zucchini.

Spirooli in Action

While you can always use a hand vegetable peeler or even a julienne peeler to make noodles, I decided to use the Spirooli. This is a new toy for me that I instantly loved. It makes long noodles out of lots of different vegetables in minutes. It's easy to clean, dishwasher safe and I like that the three different blade types fit in a little drawer type set up in the machine itself for simple storage. Little suction feet help it to stick to the counter top too so it doesn't move around on you. For someone wanting to move away from gluten, or packaged food this is a great gadget to have around.

Spicy Peanut Zucchini Noodles with Broccoli and Carrots

Adapted from the book Forks Over Knives, the Cookbook

A delicious and refreshing noodle bowl whether served hot or cold. Slightly spicy peanut dressing adds a great flavor to the zucchini, broccoli and carrots. 

Ingredients:

5 medium sized zucchini (also called courgettes, and green summer squash) or 8 ounces of noodles

4 cups broccoli florets, about 2 large heads

2 large carrots, julienned (if organic there is no need to peel)

1/2- 1 cup coconut water, fresh or bottled is fine

3 tablespoons peanut butter, or nut butter of choice. (I used some nothing added peanut butter.)

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup ( B grade), or liquid sweetener of choice

2 tablespoons of Bragg's Liquid Aminos or low sodium soy sauce or tamari

1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or to taste

Garnish: (optional)

1 chopped green onion, green part only

1 tablespoon chopped cashew pieces

1 tablespoon raw sesame seeds

Start with making your noodles. Figure about 1 zucchini per person but plan for left overs too.

If using grain based noodles, start the water on the stove top and follow package directions. When the noodles are done, add the broccoli and carrots to the water and cook about 1 minute. Drain and set aside.

If steaming your veggies including zucchini noodles, set a large pot and steamer on the stove with enough water to cover the bottom and bring to a boil.  Add individually zucchini noodles, broccoli and carrots until lightly steamed, a couple of minutes. Drain and set aside in a large bowl.

For the sauce:

Blend 1/2 cup of coconut water, nut butter, maple syrup, Bragg's Aminos, ginger and red pepper until well combined, adding more coconut water until desired consistency. Serve cold or heat gently in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until warmed through. Note: heating may make the sauce thicker.

Pour sauce over noodles and toss well. Plate and garnish with cashew pieces, green onions and sesame seeds, if desired.

So there you have it; a great fresh noodle dish with loads of flavor. Perfect for summer.

This is my entry for Healthy Vegan Fridays  blog party and also for Raw Food Thursdays

So have you made noodles from veggies? or is there another great gluten free noodle that you've discovered? I'd love to hear what people are trying and liking.

Until next time…keep it real, the food that is.

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