Vietnamese Inspired Glass Noodle Salad

 

I made this refreshing summery salad for a BBQ  during the weekend. My uncle Raouly requested i bring Pancit (a very meaty noodle dish), my Filipino family love their salty and meaty food!

Since it was a BBQ, and since i wanted something to even out the meaty BBQ playing ground i took his request and 're-moulded' it. ...Yes, OK so it is NOTHING even close to resembling Pancit! but it does have noodles!

I know its not vego, but i used a little fish sauce in the dressing. Please Feel free to omit the fish sauce and use a little more vinegar or soy. Always, ALWAYS taste test and adjust the dressing. Quantities i have listed for the dressing are oh so approximate!

I didn't have a lot of coriander left when i made this salad, but i would really suggest using a whole bunch of coriander and a really good handful or Vietnamese mint. 

you can prepare the the whole salad ahead of time if you need to, however i prefer to prepare most of it but wait until the last minute to add the dressing and garnishes. This makes sure the salad keeps its variety of crunchy, and slippery textures.

Vietnamese inspired Glass noodle salad

ingredients
* 6 wombok leaves washed and sliced into strips
* 150g vermicelli noodles (soaked in warm water for 15minutes until clear and roughly chopped)
* 2 carrots grated into long strips (or julienne)
* 1 1/2 capsicum julienne
* 1 handful snow peas julienne
* 2/3c slivered almonds toasted
* 4 tbsp sesame seeds toasted
* 2/3c fried shallots or onion (buy from Asian grocery store)
* 1 bunch coriander leaves roughly chopped
* 1 handful Vietnamese mint chopped fine
*  rind of 1 lime
* 1 long red chili chopped fine (remove as few or as many seeds as you like depending on your preference for spice)
* 125g firm tofu cut into cubes (buy marinated or marinate yourself)

marinade
* 2tbsn tamari
* 2tbsn sweet chilli
* 1 garlic cloves crushed
* 1tbsn oil


 dressing
* 1/2 bunch coriander roots washed and chopped very fine
* juice f 2 limes
* 1tbsn fish sauce (replace with extra rice wine vinegar or shaoxing if preferred)
* 2 tbsp chili sauce
* 3tbsn coconut oil (or use any light flavoured oil)
* 2 tsp sesame oil
* 2 tbsp shaoxing vinegar or rice wine vinegar
* 2 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)
* 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
* 4tbsn palm sugar (or any other sugar or hone you prefer)
* s & p
 * *** plus extra of any of the above to adjust to your taste


Method

To marinate tofu place the cubes and the marinade ingredients into a Tupperware or zip lock bag and leave in fridge to marinate for at least 30mins...up to 4hours.

Dry toast the almonds in a frying pan. place in a small bowl. do the same for the sesame seeds

Mix all the salad ingredients (except for the almonds, sesame seeds, fried onion and 1/3 of the coriander)  in a large bowl

in a glass jar or mixing bowl shake or whisk all the dressing ingredients until well combined and sugar is dissolved. taste and adjust as required.

Just before serving the salad cook the tofu in a frying pan or on the BBQ until heated through, dried out and nicely browned.
Add the dressing to the salad along with half the sesame seeds, half the almonds and half the fried onions.
Mix thoroughly with your hands.
Top with the tofu, sesame seeds, almonds and fried onions, then the remaining herbs

Serve with lime wedges.

Seasonal Salad

 

This salad is SO simple and yummy, you don't even need a salad dressing.
Made up of the variety of seasonal produce I randomly receive in my weekly organic veggie box its as good and fresh as a salad can get!

Try making a seasonal salad at home as taste for yourself how good salad can be .... when every ingredient is in its peak season each piece packs all the flavour it possibly can!
Give this salad a go, or another combo...you are likely to find that in-season ingredients complement each other well!

Season Salad.... comprising of
roast fennel and purple carrots
lemon and thyme roasted muchies
navel orange segments
radish
sunflower sprouts
rocket
dill & fennel tips

i am not listing quantities as this is a salad...add as much or little of each as you like. You really can't go wrong with a salad!

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees
Scrub carrots & wash fennel.Cut carrots into sticks and the fennel into wedges. put the fennel into a bowl and coat very lightly with olive oil s & p. place on baking tray. Put the carrots into the bowl, coat lightly with olive oil, s & p. place onto tray. chop some fresh dill and sprinkle over carrots and fennel...put tray into oven to roast.

Chop mushies into quarters (if they are large) and put into bowl, coast lightly with olive oil, add some garlic (chopped is fine but i like to shave mine into paper thin slices), some thyme, lemon rind, chilli flakes & s & p. mix and put onto a tray and roast in oven.

very thinly slice the radish (you can use a peeler or mandolin if you like),
Segment the orange.
chop some dill and some leaf tips.

Once the veg is roasted nicely let it cool down a bit (as as not to wilt the rocket.

Scatter the washed rocket into a salad bowl or platter, top with the roast veg, top with the radish and the sunflower sprouts, top with the orange segments.

Squeeze a wedge or 2 or orange over the salad too if you like...  However this is optional as the roast veg and the orange segments are enough on their own, creating a nice balance of fresh and crunchy with rich and sweet.

Enjoy! :)

Ba

tomato & artichoke cannellini beans with roasted pumpkin & roasted eggplant

This is a simple vegan, and gluten free dish you can easily make on a week night.
I roasted extra veg so i could keep it to make another weeknight meal this week to save me time.

ingredients

* roasted pumpkin wedges
* roasted eggplant wedges
* 1 tin cannellini beans
* 2 chopped tomatoes
* 2 tsp dried herbs (such as lemon myrtle ,oregano or dill)
* a handful of marinated artichoke pieces
* 1cup tomato passata
* 1/2 onion chopped fine
* handful chopped parsley
* chopped chives to garnish
* olive oil
* s & p
* 2 cloves garlic
* 1 tbsp red wine vinegar


Method

* pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
rub a little olive oil and season w salt and pepper & herbs of choice. Roast pumpkin & eggplant until just cooked
* saute onion & garlic in a pot until soft, add chopped tomato and vinegar & stir for another minute, add artichoke, beans & tomato passata and simmer for another 5mins
* add half parsley & simmer for 5mins more

* arrange roast veg on each plate with some bean mix. garnish generously w chives

enjoy!

x ba