Asian inspired veggie salad feast

Crispy Asian pork with mixed greens, crunchy radishes, spicy Fresno chili, shaved carrot and squash. This recipe is pumped up with soba and rice vermicelli noodles. Soy/ginger dressing adds just the right amount of ZING!

The inspiration

I found a recipe in the Jamie Oliver “Everyday Super Food” cookbook, that beautifully combined brown rice noodles with any variety of greens and veg and crispy fried ginger beef. I have gone back to this recipe dozens of times, mainly because I love ground meat (I swap in pork) as a protein, but also because it is amazingly balanced. Protein, veggies, and carbs combine for a meal that you feel good about eating.

Check out the book here If you prefer online recipes, there are loads of free recipes from all of his books on the Jamie Oliver website. It is a great source for menu ideas. https://www.jamieoliver.com/

Recipe tweaks

The original recipe leaves the choice of salad vegetables to you, so the sky is the limit. I chose butter lettuce and red gem lettuce. As far as veggies, shaved carrots and summer squash worked out nicely. Rather than brown rice noodles, swapped in some soba and vermicelli rice noodles. I also use half the indicated sesame oil and sub in grapeseed to temper the taste.

The fun of this recipe is the absolute flexibility to make it as you want it!

Asian inspired veggie salad feast

Recipe by kristenCourse: Kristen CooksCuisine: Salad, Noodle SaladDifficulty: Easy

Servings

5

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

470

kcal

Note: calorie content is auto generated and may not be accurate

Ingredients

• Half head of red gem lettuce

• Half head of butter lettuce

• 2 carrots, shaved

• 1 summer squash shaved (do not include seeds)

• 4 radishes, sliced

• 2 green onions, chopped, green and white included

• 1 hot chili of your choice, deseeded and sliced into rings (optional)

• For the Pork

• 1 lb. ground pork

• 1 tbsp. sesame oil

• 1 tbsp. grapeseed oil

• 2 tsp. honey

• 3 inch piece of whole gingerroot, rough chopped

• 4 cloves garlic

• 4 star anise

• 6 oz. combination of rice, Soba, Udon, or other noodles

• For the dressing

• 2 tsp. fish sauce

• 2 tsp. sugar

• Juice of one lime

Directions

• In small food processor add garlic and ginger and pulse until finely chopped
  
• Cook the noodles according to package. Set aside
• Heat oil in large frying pan on medium-high heat. Add star anise, and half of the garlic/ginger from the processor
  
• When garlic is fragrant, but not browning, add in the pork and continually break up as it cooks. Once the pork is beginning to brown, add in the honey. Note: if there is too much liquid or oil in the pan, drain off most and then continue to brown until crispy
• Add the soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice to the garlic and ginger mixture in processor. Whir until consistency of a dressing. Test and adjust. The original recipe called for far more lime juice, and no sugar. I adjusted here for my taste.
• Arrange lettuce, veggies and noodles on tray. Add pork and sprinkle the green onion and chili pepper over. Dressing can be set to side to dress each individual plate, or over the tray to dress it family style

Notes

• If you do not have a food processor, ginger and garlic can be mashed using a mortar and pestle