Quinoa salad with a Thai flair (almond, ginger, sesame, honey dressing)




Another experiment that turned out surprisingly awesome.

This recipe, inspired from a post from the Ambitious Kitchen blog, adheres to the principles of simple, quick, wholesome, complete and most importantly, easily customizable meal. Huge on flavor, color as well as taste, this will now be my go to template for the times I crave something deliciously different.

Dressing  (measurements are approximate - use these as a guide and adjust according to your tastes)\
  • Almond Butter, creamy (I prefer this to peanut butter, but PB will work great as well) - 3-4 tbsp
  • Honey - 1-2 tbsp
  • Ginger (finely grated): 1 tbsp (I added a bit more than this)
  • Soy Sauce (low sodium): 3 tbsp
  • Lemon juice: Per taste
  • Hot sauce (or use red chilli powder): per taste
  • Vinegar ( I used apple cider but any vinegar will do - or skip this and just use lemon/lime juice)
  • Sesame Oil, preferably cold pressed: 1 tsp (IMO, this is what gives the dish its signature flavor)

Salad
  • Quinoa (uncooked): 2 cups
  • Cabbage, diced small (preferably red, but I used green in this version): 1 cup
  • Bell pepper (red, green etc), diced: 1/2-3/4 cup
  • Carrots: 2-3 diced small
  • Green onion - diced (did not have on hand but would be delicious)
  • Cilantro, chopped - for garnish
  • Did not have the following but will add them next time
    • Edmame, chickpeas or tofu for protein
    • Roasted cashews for garnish (peanuts would work great as well)
    • Raisins

Secret Ingredient 
Recipe

  • Cook quinoa per instructions and cool
  • For the dressing, put almond butter and honey in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 20-30 sec. Add the rest of the ingredients (start off with a little at a time and add more of each as needed per taste) and stir until well mixed and creamy.
  • In a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients for the salad and fold in the dressing.
  • Season with the secret ingredient and dig in :-)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kari Sayur Campur - Malaysian mixed vegetable curry - Vegetarian (vegan!)

Image
Curry powder recipe @  http://spicehunt.blogspot.com/2011/03/home-made-malaysian-curry-powder.html Dish recipe inspired by  http://food52.com/recipes/17441-kari-sayur  sans the hard to come by ingredients galangal and lemon grass Picture credit: http://d2k9njawademcf.cloudfront.net/indeximages/26171/original/DSC_0038.JPG?1380091066 2 medium onions (preferably red) 4-5 pods of garlic 2-3 inch piece of ginger green chillies (optional - per taste) 3-4 tsp curry powder 1.5 cans coconut milk Mixed vegetables: 1 red bell pepper, 1 med red onion, 3-4 small eggplant, 2 carrots sliced thin, snap peas, brocolli, beans, 1-2 tomatoes - all cut into big chumks 1 pack tofu (I used soft, not firm) salt 2-3 tsp brown sugar Oil for sauteeing (preferably cold pressed sesame) Hot sauce on the side for customizing spiciness Cilantro - for garnish Mince/grind 2 onion, garlic, ginger and chillies (if using) with a little water. Heat oil and sautee this paste until oil starts separati
Read more
Naan Khatai Inspiration: http://www.monsoonspice.com/2011/09/saffron-nan-khatai-eggless-saffron.html 1 cup ww 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds 1/4-1/2 cup walnuts 3/8 cup (1/4 + 1/8) sugar (brown) (can be reduced some) 6 tbsp butter (reduce to 4 tbsp) 6 pods cardmom powdered (can be reduced to 3-4) nutmeg 1/8 tsp baking soda pinch salt Saffron dissolved in 1 tbsp warm milk 2-3 tbsp milk (may need more if less butter) Soften butter and brown sugar. Beat with Saffron milk until well integrated. Get the dry mix ready: ww flour, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, cardmom, nutmeg, baking soda, salt. Mix well will hand. Then start adding to butter/sugar to form soft dough. If dough is crumbly, add milk 1tbsp at a time until dough forms. Make into balls and place on aluminum lined tray - no need to grease. Leave some space. Cookies double in size. Pre-heat over to 400 and bake for 13-15 min (I baked around 18 min and the color was dark brown/black. started to burn) Take out gently and cool on a
Read more

Gobi Manchurian - BAKED

Image
Not sure what got into me, but I could not see that head of cauliflower sitting in the refrigerator any more. As has been the case in the last few weeks, I did not feel like making the same old same old (aaloo-gobhi - its delicious but its the "same old"). So looked up some recipes for baked cauliflower and stumbled upon this post (http://sobha-goodfood.blogspot.com/2011/04/gobi-manchurian-healthy-version.html) on which the following recipe is based. Perfection in the first try - so happy :0) One head cauliflower Batter: Sooji: 4 tbsp Whole Wheat Flour:  1/2 cup Yogurt or Water: 1/4-1/2 cup (enough to make a thick, dippable batter) Soya sauce - per taste Ginger and garlic minced - per taste Turmeric Sauce: 1 onion finely chopped 2 medium bell peppers, cut into 1x1 in pieces Ginger-garlic paste/minced Chilli sauce (TJs Jalapeno sauce) Tomato ketchup (TJs organic) Oil for sauteing Spring Onions for garnish Prepare batter by mixing the above to a thick b
Read more