Asian Salad

I played with one of my favorite salads yesterday by making some changes in an old recipe I usually use for a Ramen noodle Asian salad. Thought I'd share it with you today.

Asian Salad Nut Mix

Oriental Ramen noodles

Slivered almonds

Sesame seeds

½ flavor packet from Oriental Ramen noodles

Toast your slivered almonds and sesame seeds on medium heat. These can burn quickly. Add ½ of the flavor packet from the Oriental Ramen noodles.  Keep stirring and only heat for until you start to smell them.  This releases the oils and flavors.  Take off the heat.  Crush your Ramen noodles until they are broke up in their packaging.  Add your dried Ramen noodles to the almonds and sesame seeds and put back on the heat for another 30 seconds.  Let the mixture cool.

Shred a head of cabbage and chop up some green onions and add your mix to the salad. 

Dressing

1/2 packet from the Oriental Ramen noodles

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 teaspoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon of ground ginger

Put all your ingredients in a quart mason jar and shake well.  Pour some of the dressing over the salad until all the cabbage is lightly coated and let it rest a little to marinate the cabbage. Store the left over dressing in the refrigerator.  It will store for several weeks. Shake it well each time you use it.

Variations - If you want to buy a dressing, I recommend Newman’s Own Sesame Ginger for your salad dressing.  The nice thing about buying this product is that 100% of the profits go to charity.

Want a little more color; add a drained can of Mandarin oranges for color and flavor?  You can add the juice from the can to your dressing.

Don’t want to mess with roasting the nuts and seeds; you can buy a package premixed already.  Wal-mart carries a product called Salad Pizazz and they have an Asian Cashew Medley that would be great on an Asian salad.  The medley is so good; you can eat it as a snack.  It has a very Asian taste of soy sauce to it.

If you are roasting your own, replace the almonds with cashews and pumpkin seeds.

You can also use the pre-packaged coleslaw mix that will give you extra color with carrots and purple cabbage.

Don’t have cabbage but have iceberg lettuce or leaf lettuce from your garden; substitute the cabbage with lettuce.

No rules; just make sure you have texture, color and lots of Asian flavors.

Hope you have a great day, be happy and may God bless you and yours.