awesome salad

based on my favourite vietnamese flavours, this salad is a serious meal and can be eaten over two sittings. all ingredients can be increased/decreased/omitted according to taste, diet and seasonality. make the dressing first, then pour over the veggies. can be served with rice.

dressing

120ml tamari/soy sauce (or vegetarian fish sauce, which i've heard of but not yet seen)

50g/3tbs palm or brown sugar

30ml sesame oil

juice and finely grated zest of two limes (lemon can be used for up to half of this)

2cm piece of ginger, finely grated

3 cloves garlic, crushed

finely chopped fresh chillis/hot chilli sauce to taste

splash of water

mix all ingredients in a bowl: adjust seasoning to taste.

500g firm tofu/cold roasted chicken/other

garlic powder/seasoning

.25 small cabbage (chinese cabbage is best)

4 medium carrots

200g bean shoots (2-3 big handfuls)

1 tomato/10 cherry tomatoes

1 bunch mint

1 bunch coriander

100g roasted unsalted nuts (peanuts and cashews are the best)

100g package mung bean vermicelli (glass noodles)

if using, cut the tofu into 1-2cm cubes. sprinkle with garlic powder or other dry seasoning, shallow fry in oil until crunchy, and set aside.

soak the vermicelli in a bowl of recently boiled water for about 2 minutes. stir, then drain.

grate cabbage and carrots into small-medium pieces. coarsely chop the mint and coriander. arrange these, the bean shoots, sliced tomato, nuts and vermicelli on a large serving platter (a large, shallow bowl of at least 30cm diametre is good). put the tofu/other on top, and pour dressing over.

serve sprinkled with these: