Ian Lai made an Asian Inspired Salad for the Healthy Eating and Fun Cooking for the Asian Heritage month demonstration. It is not a norm for Chinese to have a salad in their meal. Asian usually briskly cook their vegetables via stir fry or steaming.
Ian’s Asian Inspired Salad includes part raw and and part cooked vegetables. It is flavoured with Asian sauces.
Ingredients
- few sections of a pamelo, break into chunks
- a bunch of green beans
- a small bunch of cilantro, rough chopped
- 3 green onions, finely chopped the white part (Ian used the green part to flavour the chicken broth in the previous post)
- 3 Japanese cucumbers, cut into chunks
- 10 fresh water chestnut, peel and cut into chunks
- 6 baby bok choy, diagonally sliced
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon hoisin sauce
- 1 teaspoon plum sauce
- 2 to 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- few drops of sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger to extract the ginger juice
- 1 teaspoon Pamelo zest, finely chopped,optional
Pamelo is a very transportable fruit. Great for lunch box. It has a thick spongy skin.
Source: Ian Lai
Tips:
Store chopped green onions in the freezer.
Toss bok choy with oil and garlic and grill whole.
You can add protein to this salad by adding feta cheese, hard boiled egg, beans or canned tuna.
Instructions
 Cut off the top of the Pamelo and remove the spongy peel.
Remove a thin outer layer from the peel and finely chopped. Remove the skin of the individual segments and break the flesh into chunks. |
 Blanch the green beans in salted water, uncover, until desired doneness.Drain and shock in cold running water to stop the cooking.
Slice the green beans diagonally in half. |
 When buying fresh water chestnut, choose those with the tips still standing and not floppy.Peel the fresh water chestnut and cut into chunks. Discard those that is not white. Fresh water chestnut is crispy, sweet and slightly floury.
You can substitute fresh water chestnut with apple or pear if it is not available. If using apple, drizzle with some citrus juice to prevent discoloration. |
 Combine the pamelo, Japenese cucumber, blanched green bean, water chestnut and raw baby bok choy in a large bowl. |
 Combine the oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, plum sauce, ginger juice, Pamelo zest, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl.Mix well and taste if it needs more rice wine vinegar.
Drizzle the dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat. |