RECIPE: Asian style semi-pickled salad

This salad doesn't pretend to be any kind of authentic dish,  but it DOES make a very tasty accompaniment to hot, spicy Asian food. Here's how it came about:

Yesterday I was cooking a Korean style beef dish for a product review, which you may see later in the week. I was trying to decide what to serve with it, and thought about all the side dishes we've been served in Korean restaurants (not that I've ever visited Korea, or even eaten in one in the UK, but I've been to several in Hong Kong and in the USA, and they always bring a huge selection of sides). The main attraction is a fermented, pickled cabbage called Kimchee or Kimchi, and in fact a lot of people refer to ALL the side dishes as such, because the cabbage is such an important feature.

However we're not big fans of it, or of sauerkraut. In fact Mark won't even eat good old pickled red cabbage. So I thought I'd try to create a side salad that made use of some of the other vegetable sides - radish, carrot and cucumber -  we've been served in the past, but lightly "pickled" in lime juice.

To make this, you WILL need to use a food processor. Finely grating all that veg will destroy your soul, and your knuckles, and who wants drops of blood in their salad?

Ingredients, to serve two

100g each of radishes, carrots and cucumber
juice of 1 large lime
1 baby gem lettuce
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tbs salted peanuts
2 spring onions, sliced.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry non-stick frying pan and set aside to cool

Top and tail the carrots and radishes, if necessary. Use the fine grater on a food processor to grate the carrots, radishes and cucumber. Mix together, stir in the lime juice and leave for 10 minutes.

To serve, shred the lettuce and scatter over a serving plate. Spoon the pickled mixture over this and sprinkle the sesame seeds, spring onions and peanuts over the top.

Serve as a cooling side dish to almost anything hot and spicy.

It's very easy to eat lots and lots of veg when it's so finely grated, which makes it a great way of boosting your 5 a day, so I'm sharing this with Extra Veg at Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy.


And also with Tasty Tuesdays at Honest Mum