My Ta Ta Thai Salad

This is not just an explosion of flavours and smells, but has heaps of ingredients that have many health benefits as well. For example lemongrass which is great for digestion and possess anti-cancer properties as well... Garlic which helps in fighting against the common cold and also helps reducing cholesterol levels. Thai Basil!!!! OMG my favourite ingredient, I could crush the leaves and smell them all day, that is how much I love them. :) Thai basil is a natural anti-imflammatory and also has anti bacterial properties. So this meal is a power packed meal with heaps of flavour and healthy stuff too. :) double bonus!!!! 

The reason I made this salad was because I was seriously craving thai food (and no I am not pregnant :) ) and I just didn't have the energy to make a normal thai curry but something interesting.... SO ofcourse I took to the internet in search of a really nice and simple thai salad so I came across this recipe which I have modified slightly, all credit to the author who created this as it is amazing!!!!!! 

What you will need is the following: - 

(Serves 3) 

For the Salad: - 

1 Cup of edamame boiled, shelled and crushed into a paste (almost looks like avocado in the pic above) 

1 handful of kale finely chopped

1/4 chinese cabbage finely chopped

1 Large carrot grated using a Julienne grater

1 Green Pepper finely sliced

1/2 onion finely chopped

1 stalk of green onion finely chopped

1 handful of thai basil finely chopped

As many as you like of the roasted sweet chilli cashews (purchase from any supermarket) I usually take a ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them ever so slightly as you still want to have some sort of crunch and texture in the salad 

1 handful of coriander just picked of the stalk (To garnish) 

For the Dressing: - 

1 Garlic Clove 

1 1/2 TBLS Soy sauce preferably gluten free and salt reduced

1 TBLS Water

2 TBLS Sunflower Oil

1 TBLS Vinegar

1 TBLS Manuka Honey

1/2 TBLS Sesame Oil

1/2 TBLS Lemongrass paste (simply chop the lemongrass up really finely and crush using a mortar and pestle, this will require some elbow grease :) and also add alittle water to help crush and create a paste) or if you can buy a ready made paste feel free to do so 

Method: - 

EASY AS PIE!!!! Toss all the salad stuff together, I would leave the edamame and cashews for just before you want to serve otherwise the salad will become really soggy and cashews will end up being soft. To make the dressing simply puree all the ingredients together and refrigerate until you are ready to serve. When you are about to serve this to your guests mix the edamame and salad dressing together and toss through the salad so everything gets coated. Once you are satifised that everything is mixed through add the cashews and garnish with coriander. 

ENJOY and let me know what you think, I personally think you are all going to love this. Much love CC :)