Try This Vegan Asian Salad
With so much travel and so many visitors in town, we haven’t been eating as well as we’d like. Plus, it’s been hot so spending a lot of time cooking doesn’t sound like a good time. That’s why we recently challenged ourselves to add some light, summery entrees to our repertoire.
After a lot of experimenting, we’ve finally met the challenge (appropriate for this month) and perfected a vegan, Asian salad that we love. It’s cold, reasonably healthy and, even better, pretty simple to put together.
We’ve been eating it quite a bit to offset some of our more gluttonous days and to prepare our bodies for our upcoming hiking madness. Give it a try, and let us know what you think.
Salad: Combine these ingredients in a large bowl. Use whatever quantities you’d like based on personal preference and number of mouths.
– shredded Napa cabbage
– baby spinach and / or baby kales
– shredded carrot
– sliced green onion (and/or yellow onion)
– broccoli
Optional: Tofu – cubed and fried in garlic – makes a fantastic addition (and we’re not big tofu guys).
Peanut Dressing: Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water; set aside. Whisk together the soy sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and warm water in a small saucepan over medium heat; simmer and stir until sugar has dissolved. Stir in the cornstarch mixture; simmer until the sauce thickens (1 or 2 minutes). Allow to cool.
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 cup warm water
Combine: Pour the thoroughly cooled dressing over the salad mixture. Again, use your preferred quantity.
Toppers: Mmmm. Who doesn’t like toppers. For your consideration…
– cilantro
– sriracha
– peanuts
What do you think? What do you eat when you’re looking for a healthy alternative to heavier meals?
Oh my god, that looks too delicious! I shouldn’t have viewed your article in the morning, I just got so hungry, and my fridge is almost empty…:/
Looks delicious! Although I’m not vegan, I’m a big fan of vegan cuisine, I think it’s very healthy.
Unlike a lot of vegan meals, we find this one very satisfying. And, yes, quite healthy – especially when compared to what we’ve been eating lately.
I will be making this as soon as I get home (and with the tofu). I am not vegan but try to promote vegan cooking a lot. It’s so much better for the environment and animals
Glad you mentioned the tofu. I don’t think I played it up enough in the post. It’s a really nice addition when it’s fried in garlic.
Yummy!
So is this the big food change you mentioned? Going vegan? I do it occasionally, but not as a permanent change. My “other” blog has quite a few vegan recipes (and vegan-friendly ones, meaning you can leave out the protein bit) if you’re interested.
No… this is just normal Kent and Caanan. About 1/3 of our “go to”meals are vegan. The others are vegetarian. We’re very disciplined when we’re eating in
Yummy!!
I’ve been cooking a lot more myself to try and eat healthy and am always looking for recipes. This one looks great!
Give it a shot, Adam. It really is very easy. Let us know.
If I had a kitchen, I would make this. I am craving a yummy salad and this sounds amazing!!
What have you been eating over there?
Well look at you gents getting all culinary! Ooh la la! In all seriousness though, this’ll come in handy. Once the summer heat has passed, I’m whipping my butt back into shape at the gym and this’ll come in handy for when I’m wanting to mix up the kind of salad I’m having. Thanks for sharing guys
Keep us posted, Tom. And just when does the brutal heat pass over there?
We love peanut sauce! And, with the weather being too hot to cook, this salad sounds perfect. Tomorrow night this will be put into use. Thanks!
It’s all about that dressing.
Being a vegetarian/vegan, I love salads…especially one with tofu and peanut dressing! Nicely done, guys. Especially if you’re not big on tofu
I don’t know why tofu is so tough for both of us to love. Fried like this, though, it’s hard to resist.
Love! Love! Love! I will give this one a try….
Thought of you when perfecting it
Nice. I like to eat vegan when I can. I’m not normally a big salad person but we have been growing lettuce and tomato and I try to eat everything that comes from the garden. I think zucchini spaghetti with homemade marinara is on the menu next.
Oh, and cilantro is pretty much the greatest thing in the history of the world.
We both love cilantro, but – you know – SO many people hate it. No entiendo.
Looks pretty tasty! I’d probably add to some coriander, but then I add coriander to everything.
I’m heading to Taiwan next month to stay with a vegan couple for a few weeks. I’m not even a vegetarian, so it’s going to be an interesting.
Try vegan for 2 weeks!
I love this but where is the green smoothie post!
We do need to do that one. Because it’s a good green smoothie.
This sounds SO good – I’m going to have to put that dressing into our usual rotation.
The dressing is the killer part. You could put it on almost anything.
Great ingredients for a great sounding salad! In Thailand when I need a light refreshing meal, I often go for a green papaya mixed salad with a little portion of soft rice noodles – light and tasty.
Oh, man – that sounds great. I think you one-upped us
This looks quite colorful and healthy and tasty too!!
I generally go for fruits or fruit juices when looking for healthier options!!
Wait until we post our smoothie recipes.
THANKS. This is exactly what I am going to have for dinner, thanks to you
This looks really yum… except I’m not sure about the tofu. I’ve had some bad experiences with mushy tofu in China and I’m not sure if I’m ready to go there again. But the rest of the dish sounds great… I might have to work up some courage!
Funny you should say that. We are in China right now, and we can’t stand the tofu here (so far, at least!). The “firm” variety that we get at home fries up very nicely – no mush at all!