Thai Rainbow Salad

It's more fun to eat things that have "Rainbow" in the title.

Salad:
Romaine lettuce, shredded
Purple cabbage, shredded
carrots, julienned or ribboned with a vegetable peeler
cucumbers, julienned or ribboned
red pepper, julienned
bean sprouts
baked tofu cut into strips
cilantro

Peanut Dressing:
Natural peanut butter
Rice vinegar
Brown sugar
Asian chili sauce
Ginger

Asian Noodle Salad

Thanks to Kristin, who recommended this delicious salad recipe. In order to make it low-calorie enough, I had to doctor the dressing recipe quite a bit (and it was still higher in sodium than I normally allow, but, hey, you gotta live a little...), so you can check out my adaptation below. All in all, it was really great and definitely something I could take to a summer potluck without anyone knowing instantly what a freaky zealot I am.

Asian Noodle Salad

spinach
shredded red and green (or napa) cabbage
thinly sliced yellow and orange bell peppers
mung bean sprouts
a bunch of cilantro, coarsely chopped
a bunch of green onions, thinly sliced
whole wheat rotini

soy sauce
brown sugar (or honey)
coupla garlic cloves, pressed
a hunk of ginger, minced
juice of a lime or two
a bit of a jalapeno, minced
orange juice, to dilute the saltiness
a coupla tablespoons sesame oil
a coupla tablespoons olive oil

Sorry no measurements, but you can pretty much follow your heart. When I make it again, I will just mix together all the healthy stuff and then add just enough of the oil, soy sauce and sugar to make it fly.

Tabbouleh

I didn't take this picture, as you can probably surmise from the fact that it is a decent photo. I wanted to take a picture of the tabbouleh I made a couple days ago, but I accidentally ate it all. But it looked quite a bit like this one, and was very, you guessed it, nutrient dense. And it was pretty good. I loosely followed the recipe out of the Moosewood cookbook (see previous post) and it worked well. I, naturally, added only a tablespoon of oil when she called for a quarter cup, but it was still good, and served it over a HUGE PILE OF LETTUCE. Man, I just love lettuce SO MUCH.

Tabbouleh

1 c dry bulgur wheat
1 1/2 c boiling h2o
dash salt
freshly ground pepper
1/4 c lemon juice
1 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 green onions, minced
1 bunch parsley, minced
15 mint leaves, minced
2 medium tomatoes, dices
1 cucumber, diced
(you could also add green bell pepper and chickpeas, but I was done dicing)

Combine the bulgur with the boiling water, cover and let sit for a half hour, until soft.
Meanwhile, combine all the dressing ingredients (everything but the veggies) and cut the veggies
When the bulgur is soft, add the dressing and let sit a half hour or so
Add veggies
Pile of lettuce
Put in face

Found a Peanut

I think it's fun how any recipe that involves peanuts gets to be treated as though it originated in Thailand. I got the idea for this Thai-style salad out of the Moosewood cookbook, a good standby, and it was pretty good. The trouble, per usual, is finding just the right low-calorie dressing. For this salad, I used this peanut sauce recipe and then added half a package of silken tofu and gave it a whizz in the VitaMix, and it was ok. Quite good, but could have used less vinegar and, if you're feelin' frisky, more sugar. If anyone has a fabulous peanut sauce/dressing recipe they stand by, they are encouraged to share it.

I did not photograph the salad as it was housed in a tupperware larger than a shoebox and it didn't look so much good as just huge. Come to think of it, I should have posted the picture to show you how serious I am about lettuce. To give you an idea, I was in the process of eating the salad, with no significant breaks, for two hours. It takes so much salad to make a person full, especially when that person went to Jazzercise earlier that day.

Thai Peanut Salad

peanut dressing*
shredded romaine
shredded carrot
chopped cucumber
sprouts of some kind
chopped red pepper
diced tofu, cooked (I froze mine and then microwaved it, per the instructions of the fellow who provided the dressing recipe, and it was spongetastic and really dry. I'm going to try microwaving without freezing next time).

* Missy was kind enough to contribute her peanut sauce recipe, which looks delicious. The ingredients are a little rich, so I am hoping it will still taste good when I make it with light coconut milk and leave out the oil! I know I gotta try it though, because she was so emphatic that she looooooooooves it! For other ideas about how to use this sauce, check out her comment.

just whir together 3/4 c. coconut milk, 1/2 c. peanut butter, 2 cloves garlic, 1 1/2 t. curry powder, 1 1/2 t. brown sugar, 1 T. fresh lime juice, 1 T. canola oil, 1 1/2 T. soy sauce.

Taco salad and knock-off dressing

In an unending effort to come up with New! Delicious! Low-Fat! salad ideas, today I got real ambitious. We all know that the essential component of a palatable salad is good salad dressing, and we also all know that good salad dressing contains fat and sugar in abundance. Take, for example, my most preferred dressing, the house dressing at Cafe Rio. I'm sure it has 200 calories per teaspoon, but that stuff turns a salad into...I don't know, but something really good tasting. At any rate, I can't go around consuming Cafe Rio's dressing, but I can try to use their salad as a starting point for a healthier and appealing (though not decadent) salad of my own. This recipe may benefit from some tweaking.

Cilantro-lime ranch dressing
1 recipe tofu mayo from Clean Vegan
1/2 packet Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packet (this may have been too much, it came out real ranchey)
1 cup soy-buttermilk (add a teaspoon or so of lemon juice (or vinegar) to the soymilk and it will curdle in a minute or two)
the end of a jalapeno (I didn't add enough and couldn't taste it)
a small handful cilantro
juice of 1/2 a lime

Taco salad
shredded romaine
chopped bell peppers (I used yellow)
shredded carrots
chopped tomatoes
diced avocado
chopped green onion
corn
1 can black beans and 2 cans kidney beans cooked in juice with 1/2 packet of taco seasoning until thickened

When I made this salad again the next day out of the leftovers, I cut up and entire mango and put it on top of everything and it really livened things up. Oh, and made it really gorgeous. So, if you're willing to work with mangoes, they make a great addition.


It came out well, but still needs a bit of help. I still thought it was worth posting as a great idea for a change of pace in the salad world. I am also a little bit embarrassed at having used not one but TWO seasoning packets containing msg and other unmentionables. Forgive me.

Prefab Greek Salad

In an effort to increase the ease of eating salads and decrease their caloric density, I submit to you the prefab salad. The idea is to concoct a mix of cooked beans and chopped veggies and marinate them in a low-calorie dressing of some kind. Then, when it's salad time, you just slop a couple cups of prefab on your bed of pre-shredded greens, and you got yerself an easy salad. The greek variety is one of my favorites, and here is what I put in it today:

2 cans garbanzos (a better woman would have soaked and cooked her own)
2 roma tomatoes
1 cucumber
1/2 can black olives
1/2 of one red onion, minced
a couple tablespoons of Girard's Greek Feta Vinaigrette, watered down with
1/2 c or so red wine vinegar