Low Fat Vegan Cooking

I am a friend of the footless,
I am a friend of all bipeds,
I am a friend of those with four feet,
I am a friend of the many footed!

                           Anguttara Nikaya IV 67

June 12, 2010

Curried Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Salad

Filed under: Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density, Indian Cuisine, Low Calorie Density, Salads, Side Dishes — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 1:03 am

Curried Cauliflower and Sweet Potato with Currants and Red Onion

Curried Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Salad

This is another adaptation in my attempt to learn to present my cooking more attractively.

I really loved this salad, and as i always do, i made enough for the next day too.  But overnight in the frig did not improve it.  The onion “cooked” in the vinegar, a flavor i love in pressed salad, but it did not go at all with the curry spices.  So that’s why i am saying serve it the day you make it.  It needs to sit an hour or two for the curry to flavor the cauliflower, but that’s all.

The recipe called for currants.  I thought i didn’t like them, and have been substituting raisins for any currants i come across in recipes for years, but i decided to try them again, just to be sure, and i loved them.  The organic ones i tried were sweeter than raisins and didn’t have the annoying little seeds i remembered.

I also recommend the optional toasted pine nuts and sunflower seeds.  They really add beauty and flavor to the salad.  Sunflower seeds are another food i thought i didn’t like, except for in granola.  I figured out this is because they are toasted – it makes all the difference.

Makes 4 servings

Preparation about 15 minutes

Serve within a few hours

The veggies:

1 head cauliflower, any color

1 small red onion

2 medium sweet potatoes

The dressing:

½ c. rice vinegar

2 T. vegan sugar

2 t. curry powder, hot or mild

½ t. salt (optional)

1/8 t. ground black pepper

The currants:

½ c. currants

The garnishes (optional):

½ c. toasted pine nuts

¼ c. toasted sunflower seeds

½ c. chopped cilantro

Early in the day, bake or microwave the sweet potatoes until quite soft and tender.  Cool.  Peel and chop into bite sized pieces.

Cut the cauliflower into florets, or half florets, if they are not bite sized.  Steam the cauliflower in or over boiling water about 4 minutes, until just tender.  Drain.

Meanwhile, mince the onion, and start the dressing:

Mix the ingredients for the dressing together in a small bowl.

Put the cauliflower, onion, sweet potatoes, and currants into a bowl or storage container.  Pour the dressing over this and mix well but carefully so as not to damage the florets.

Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Sprinkle with the pine nuts, sunflower seeds, and chopped cilantro, if using.

Adapted from Great Chefs Cook Vegan by Linda Long

June 5, 2010

Three Bean Salad

Filed under: American Cuisine, Gluten Free, Low Calorie Density, Salads — Tags: , , , , , , , — admin @ 1:03 am

Three Bean Salad with Green, Garbanzo, and Kidney Beans and Grape Tomato and Cucumber

Three Bean Salad

This is more of a reminder than a recipe for something new to most of you.  Three bean salad, which most of us Americans know from our childhood, is usually vegan, and can easily be low fat.

Three Bean Salad is something we can put together quickly, although it improves if it sits and marinates for a few hours or overnight.  If you don’t just make it and eat it, be sure to stir it up every time you get a chance.  Low fat salad dressings never stick as well as those with oil in them, but this can easily be remedied by a little stirring, and isn’t that worth missing a lot of calories?  My old recipe called for ¾ c. olive oil – that’s 1440 more calories, or 2 T. per small serving (which is 120 calories).  You can have almost a whole cup more salad for those calories and that will fill you up better and make you healthier.

I am in love with balsamic vinegar, and think it is perfect with Three Bean Salad, although any vinegar will do – red wine, apple cider, champagne, even raspberry, although that last would not be to everyone’s taste.

As the word salad is in the name of this recipe, i think it calls for salad vegetables, although you often see it served with just green beans as any kind of light low calorie vegetable in it, and not a lot of those!

A typical can of beans has about 1 ½ c. of beans in it.  If you look at the label, it will tell you there is more, but they seem to be counting the bean juice, which many of us believe causes gas, and in any case is not going to be a part of this recipe.  I like to cook my own beans, and not have the extra salt, but i usually use canned beans (which can be washed to get rid of some of the salt), so i can throw together a quick meal, with nuked (microwaved) potatoes or popcorn (spritzed with a little water so the salt or seasoning sticks) and some fruit.

Of course if you are not trying to stand out as a vegan, you can take this to many potlucks and picnics and eat a lot of it and a little bit of whatever else you can find that doesn’t make you ill… French bread?  Green salad (you could bring your own fat free dressing)?  Baked potatoes?  Corn on the Cob?

Many recipes vary the beans with black beans, cannellini, white, and also wax beans mixed with the green beans.  All of these are interesting and worth pursuing, but this is the classic recipe which you can’t go wrong with.

 

Three Bean Salad

Makes about 4 servings

Preparation about 15 minutes

Marinate 5 – 24 hours (refrigerate if time allows)

Freezing changes the texture of the beans in a way i don’t like

The Beans:

1 ½ c. garbanzo beans, drained

1 ½ c. kidney beans, drained

3 c. green beans, cooked and drained, or raw, chopped

½ – 1 onion, preferably red (about ¾ c.)

The Dressing:

½ c. vinegar, red wine, balsamic, or champagne

½ t. ground paprika

1 t. Dijon mustard

1 t. sugar (optional)

½ t. salt (optional and unnecessary if the beans are canned with salt)

2 T. water (optional for those who find full-strength vinegar too much)

The Salad Vegetables:

4 c. lettuces

1 c. tomatoes, chopped

1 c. cucumber, diced

Mix the beans and onion.  Mix the dressing well to dissolve the sugar and add to the beans.  Marinate 5 – 1440 minutes.

Serve over salad vegetables as above or of your choice.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving – 185 calories/9 g protein (19.4%)/1.5 g fat (7.2%)

May 1, 2010

Hummus Dressing

Filed under: Gluten Free, Low Calorie Density, Middle Eastern Cuisine, Salads — admin @ 1:03 am

Hummus Dressing on a Salad of Grated Zucchini, Carrot, and Jicama with Tomatoes

Hummus Dressing

This is for my friend Heidi who wanted a creamy dressing but maybe not with tofu… so beans!  Any bean would be good in this, i think.  I saw a black bean hummus recipe i want to try!  But i would have made this with white beans if i had them.

The main difference between this dressing and regular hummus is that this has more vinegar and lemon.  You could also use water if you didn’t want such a tart flavor, or if you want the dressing to be thinner.

I usually give the ingredients for 4 servings, but in this case, the recipe serves 6, because 2 cans of drained garbanzos is 3 cups, and i thought most of us would be using canned garbanzos.  I actually went back and put another half cup on my salad after the photo, which gave me my full day’s serving of beans.

Makes 6 normal servings of about ½ c. or 3 large servings

Preparation about 15 minutes

Can be made ahead

Freezes well

3 c. drained garbanzo beans

½ c. lemon juice

½ c. red wine vinegar

2 t. ground cumin

1 t. ground paprika

½ c. finely chopped scallions (about 5 medium scallions)

1/8 t. or more ground black pepper

Put everything in a food processor or blender.  You might have to add some water in the blender.

Serve on a salad and garnish, if desired, with chopped scallions and/or paprika.

Hope you enjoy it, Heidi!

As usual, i looked up what i was cooking on Google, and i found that everything in the meal was Middle Eastern, more or less!

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving – 96 calories/ 7.5 g protein (31.3%)/1.3 g fat (12.2%)

April 17, 2010

Salad with Pears Sautéed in Caramelized Raw Sugar and Lemon Dressing

Filed under: Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density, Salads — admin @ 1:03 am

Salad with Lettuce, Carrot, Pears, with Walnuts and Lemon and Caramelized Raw Sugar Dressing

Salad with Pears Sautéed in Raw Sugar and Lemon Dressing

Fruit always makes a simple salad more elegant, and even in winter, you can have fresh pears.  I prefer D’Anjou or Bartlett pears.  Pears ripen in their own time, and then stay perfect for a day or two at most, although refrigerating them sometimes can hold them a little longer.  To make the salad lower fat, you could forgo the walnuts, or use less. 

1 head lettuce or bag of mixed greens

2 carrots

2 cucumbers

¼ c. walnut halves

2 ripe pears

¼ c. raw sugar

1 c . lemon juice – divided use

A couple of hours before you plan to eat:

Wash and spin or dry the lettuce. Set aside.

Slice or chop the pears.  I prefer bite sized pieces you can pop in your mouth, but the slices are prettier.  I skinned them, but you don’t have to.

Put the walnut halves in a medium sized heavy skillet such as cast iron and heat them over medium heat, watching carefully and stirring constantly, until browned on both sides.  Remove from the heat and take them out of the pan, and set aside.  Have extra walnuts ready in case the first ones get too brown, which is easy to do.  You also could toast them in the oven, which gives you a little more time between done and burnt, but all that opening the door, checking and stirring, not to mention all the energy you use to heat the oven, seems like too much work to me.  Of course if you’re using the oven for something else, it might make more sense.

When the walnuts are cool, chop them into tiny pieces so they go farther in the salad.

Put the raw sugar in the skillet.  Add 2 T. of the lemon juice.  Heat over medium flame until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the pears and sauté, stirring frequently, until the juice is released and then mostly absorbed and the remaining sauce is caramelized – thick and brown.  Remove from heat and add the rest of the lemon juice to the pan, stir it gently, and set aside to cool.

When you are almost ready to eat, chop or tear the lettuce into bite sized pieces.  Vitamins are lost once the leaves are cut or torn, so it’s best to do that at the last minute.

Grate the carrots and chop the cucumber.

Mix the vegetables and put into bowls or on plates.  Arrange the pears on top of the rest of the salad, and pour the dressing over.

Inspired by the recipe for Grilled Pear, Walnut, and Cabbage Salad in the cookbook Vegan Yum Yum by Lauren Ulm.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving – 201 calories/4 g protein (8%)/5.3 g fat 23.5%)

April 3, 2010

Spring Rolls

Filed under: Feasts, Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density, Main Dishes, Salads, Thai Cuisine — admin @ 1:03 am

Spring Rolls with Thai Basil, Red Cabbage, Scallions, Lettuce, Cucumber, Mung Bean Sprouts, Daikon Radish, Mint, and Thai Sweet Sauce

Spring Rolls

So far in LFVC, i have only used whole grains, whether milled or whole.  But i am making an exception for these spring rolls, as i cannot find anyone who knows how to make brown rice paper or bean threads.  For a once in a while meal, i think a little refined rice is okay, as long as you know it is not an ideal food.

Spring rolls as i make them are really a salad, so that is why i put them at 1:03, (did you notice that’s the time for salads?) with salad postings.

Some people seem to enjoy being a guest and doing a lot of work to put their dinner together at the table.  If you are serving some of these, or if you are a cook who doesn’t have a lot of time, you can shred the ingredients, and let people make their own spring rolls.  Otherwise, you can do them all yourself, or with a friend.  These are definitely easier with two people.  If it’s just you, be sure to have some happy music to keep you going.  Or you might prefer to use the time as a meditation in a repetitive task.

Spring rolls don’t keep marvelously.  The rice paper gets fragile, but you can definitely eat leftovers the next day as long as you understand they won’t be so pretty.

I first remember having these Thai type of oil free spring rolls at my daughter and son-in-laws.  They are both great cooks.

I tend to just put everything in a bowl and mix it up, but it is nicer to layer the ingredients on each rice paper.

Start with the sauce.  You can buy Mae Ploy Thai Sweet Sauce, but it is quite easy to make an almost exact copy.  Again, this is for Special, because it’s hard to believe how much sugar there is in the sauce.  And yes, i have tried it with just a couple of teaspoons of sugar, and it is not worth the effort, at least to me.

Thai Sweet Chili Sauce 

Makes about 8 servings, unless you like a lot of sauce

Preparation about 7 minutes

Can be made ahead

Keeps well in the refrigerator at least a couple of weeks

8 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

4 T. Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste or

8 Thai chilies or

½ c. chilies, mild or hot

2 c. sugar

1 c. rice vinegar

2 t. salt (optional)

Cook the garlic and chilies or chili paste with the sugar and vinegar about 10 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved and sauce thickens.  Cool.

Adapted from Thai Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce from She Simmers.com.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving – 196 calories/.2 g protein/0 fat

Spring Rolls

 

Makes about 8 servings

Preparation about 90 minutes

Best eaten soon after completing the rolls

Thai Sweet Chili Sauce

7 – 14 oz. firm tofu (optional)

2 T. low sodium tamari

1 T. maple syrup

1 t. ground ginger

4 oz. rice vermicelli (bean threads)

32 (more or less) rice papers

2 carrots

1 c. mung bean sprouts

1 large cucumber

¼ red cabbage

3 inches large daikon radish or 8 red radishes

½ head leaf lettuce

1 c. daikon sprouts (optional)

8 scallions

½ c. cilantro

½ c. mint leaves

½ c. fresh basil

About 4 hours before your meal is to be eaten:

Press the tofu by draining and wrapping in a towel and putting something heavy on top of it for half an hour or so (i use a stack of cast iron pans).  Chop the pressed tofu into small squares and sauté in about 2 T. tamari and about 1 T. sugar or maple syrup and a little fresh grated or dried ground ginger, until the liquid is absorbed and the tofu is lightly browned.  Set aside to cool.

Cook the rice vermicelli according to its package or boil some water and put in the noodles for about 2 minutes, until they are easy to bite.  Drain and cool.

Wash all the veggies and spin in a salad spinner or dry with a towel and leave on a dry towel to further dry.

About 90 minutes before the meal:

Grate the carrot, daikon, cucumber, and cabbage.  A food processor makes short work of this.

Chop the sprouts into 1 inch pieces.

Chop the cilantro, mint, and basil.

Chop the lettuce.

Mix the vegetables together or set out in bowls.

Fill a large low bowl or plate with water to dip the rice paper in.

To Assemble:

Put one rice paper in the bowl with water for about 90 seconds, until it is pliable and soft enough to eat.  Take it out of the water and let it drip for a few seconds, then smooth it out on a plate or board.

Spread out a teaspoon or two of the sauce in the center of the rice paper.

Top with a Tablespoon or so of each vegetable.  Add a couple of Tablespoons of rice vermicelli and a Tablespoon of the optional tofu.  You might want to use two forks to pick up the vermicelli so you don’t have to be constantly washing your finger between each spring roll.

Fold the top of the wet rice paper down to the bottom and center the vegetables and things.  Fold in one side and then the other.  Push the vegetables back to the fold and roll the two bottom ends over the fold.

See if you need to use more of less of each thing for the next roll.

Set on the plate you intend to serve them on, as they stick to each other and shouldn’t be moved.

Continue on, having a pleasant conversation or music or meditation until one of the ingredients is used up.  Then you can make a few smaller rolls or just put the rest together for a salad later. (Not much later:  the next meal, hopefully.  Or no later than the next day.)

Serve with more of the sauce (that’s why you make so much) and garnish the plate, if desired with sprigs of the basil, mint, and cilantro.

Enjoy, and wait to make them again when you’ve forgotten how much work they are, and only remember how good they are.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving, with 7 oz. tofu and Thai Sweet Chili Sauce – 281 calories/6.2 g protein (8.8%)/1.6 g fat (5%)

March 20, 2010

Pomegranate Molasses Salad Dressing

Filed under: Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density, Salads — admin @ 1:03 am

Salad with Pomegranate Molasses Dressing and Lettuce, Red Pepper, and Carrot

Pomegranate Molasses

Pomegranate Molasses Dressing

We were shopping at our alternate produce market, which has a lot of Middle Eastern foods, and i spotted a low fat vegan food new to me:  Pomegranate Molasses.  I had to try it.

When we got home, i Googled it and found that it was not actually molasses, but a syrup made from pomegranates.  It tastes vaguely of them, and has a sweet, rich taste, but lighter than sugar molasses.

I thought it would be perfect for a salad.

Since it is a Middle-Eastern ingredient, i tried it with cumin and coriander.  But i liked it best just with vinegar.

I thought red wine vinegar would be more appropriate than balsamic vinegar, but when i tasted the two mixes, i liked the balsamic vinegar with it more.  Both are sweet, and blend well together.

When i first began making oil-less salad dressing, i watered it down to make the taste of the vinegar less strong.  But i seem to have gotten used to it, as i sometimes make a dressing with just vinegar and sugar and herbs.  I also often use half vinegar and half lemon juice in a dressing.  But if just vinegar seems too strong for you, try mixing in half the amount of vinegar called for with water.  If you had the dressing mixed, you would put in the water as the same amount of vinegar you’d used, and then add the rest of the ingredients again, to double the recipe, but half the vinegar.

I liked the dressing best so you could really taste the pomegranate molasses, so i put in more than a healthy amount of it.  That’s why i rated this recipe High Calorie Density.

Pomegranate Molasses Dressing

Makes 4 servings

Preparation about 5 minutes

Can be made ahead

Should keep for several weeks in the refrigerator

½ c. pomegranate molasses

½ c. balsamic vinegar

Mix thoroughly.  The molasses doesn’t mix very easily into the vinegar.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per serving – 120 calories

March 13, 2010

Italian Herb Dressing

Filed under: Gluten Free, Low Calorie Density, Salads — admin @ 1:03 am

Italian Herb Dressing with Fresh Thyme and Roasted Garlic on a Salad of Red Cabbage, Carrot, Tomato, and Radish

Italian Herb Dressing

Years ago, i found recipe after recipe calling for balsamic vinegar, so naturally, i tried it.  Never a big fan of vinegar in general, i found balsamic vinegar just too much, especially without oil to dilute it.  And yes, i tried diluting it with water.  When i came across it in recipes, i used red wine vinegar.  But recently, i tried a little on my salad at Fresh Choice (a salad buffet), and i really liked it.  So i nervously bought a bottle and tried it at home.  Yep!  I like it now.  It has a rich, dense, and sweeter flavor than red wine vinegar.  Here is my latest invention and current favorite salad dressing.

I use maple syrup or agave as it mixes so easily, but i’m sure sugar would be fine, and more traditionally Italian.  Just be sure to mix it well.  I like the dressing better with the greater amount of sweetener, but you know if you can do that for an everyday dressing or just for a special occasion dressing.

The produce market where i shop has fresh herbs year round, and although i keep some in the freezer, i often buy them fresh because that’s when they are the tastiest.  I also have enjoyed a little plastic box from Whole Foods Market that has a mix of fresh Italian herbs.  Any mix is fine, as long as it has some thyme in it… and actually more herbs are nice, as a kind of intense green in the salad.

Italian Herb Dressing

Makes 4 servings

Preparation about 10 minutes

Can be made ahead, in fact it improves

Can be stored a week, but it is best used in a couple of days while the herbs are green

½ c. balsamic vinegar

2 t. – ¼ c. maple syrup, agave, or sugar

2 t. Dijon mustard

½ t. salt (optional)

½ c. fresh herbs

Mix the vinegar, agave, and mustard.  Chop the herbs a little or a lot, depending on what you like in a bite of salad.

Pour on your salad or serve at the table, depending on what’s in the salad.  Grated vegetables soak up the dressing and develop a blended mildness if they sit with the dressing for a couple of hours.  Lettuce should be dressed just before eating.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per serving with 2 t. maple syrup – 58 calories

Per serving with ¼ c. maple syrup – 94 calories

Per serving with 2 t. agave – 51 calories

Per serving with ¼ c. agave – 101 calories

February 27, 2010

Caesar Dressing

Filed under: Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density, Italian Cuisine, Salads — admin @ 1:03 am

Caesar Dressing on a Salad of Lettuce, Tomato, Carrot, and Cucumber

Recipe to follow, hopefully by tonight.

February 13, 2010

Gado Gado – Peanut Sauce and Vegetable Salad

Filed under: Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density, Main Dishes, Salads, Thai Cuisine — admin @ 1:05 am

Gado Gado - Peanut Sauce on Salad of Broccoli Red Cabbage Carrot Lettuce and Cucumber

Gado Gado – Peanut Sauce and Vegetable Salad

There are many recipes for a spicy peanut sauce. This one is a Thai version.
You might be able to find tamarind in a bottled sauce with tomato in it. This works okay. If you want to be more authentic, try to find tamarind paste or make it yourself from dried tamarind, if you can find that. Here are the instructions on how to make tamarind paste from dried tamarind:

http://www.lowfatvegancooking.org/?s=tamarind

I had Gado Gado over the years, but hadn’t realized it was Thai until I started cooking other Thai dishes.

http://www.lowfatvegancooking.org/?cat=31

When i made this for my daughter and son-in-law, my husband ate it but it didn’t really register with him. When i made it this week, he said he really liked it, so that makes three vegan dishes that i make that he really likes (the other two are hot and sour soup and vegetable sushi), and even though it is higher in fat than i would like him to eat most of the time, i will make it regularly as long as he likes it.

http://www.lowfatvegancooking.org/?s=chinese+hot+and+sour+soup

http://www.lowfatvegancooking.org/?s=sushi

This is another of my special dishes for company, especially non-vegan company. The sauce recipe is generous for people not used to low fat eating. I assemble the salad with a moderate amount of the peanut sauce, and then put a creamer of extra sauce on the table for those who want it.

Gado Gado

Makes 4 servings, although the sauce might be 8 servings if you prefer to eat less fat
Preparation about 45 minutes
Can be made ahead, but keep the sauce separate to add at the last minute
Freezes well as separate veggies and sauce

Sauce:
2 small white onions, 3 medium red onions, or 4 shallots, chopped fine
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 inches fresh ginger or galangal, peeled and grated
1 – 2 T. Thai chili paste or pureed Thai or other chilies, hot or mild
1 T. tamarind paste or sauce
2 t. vegan sugar
½ c. peanut butter, smooth or chunky
2 T. lime juice

Garnishes:
Lime zest
Scallions
Peanuts
Mint

Sauté the onion and garlic in ½ c. water. Add the rest except the lime juice, and stir well, and heat until it is warm, if desired. We prefer everything more or less room temperature. Add the lime juice when it’s finished cooking.

Chop or slice and cook until just tender or three more vegetables such as:

Broccoli
Red cabbage
Carrots
Green beans
Zucchini
Cauliflower

Cool at least 20 minutes so the lettuce doesn’t wilt.

Chop fresh vegetables such as:
Lettuce
Cucumber
Mung sprouts – chopped
Basil – Thai or European, chopped
Mint, chopped

To assemble, put the raw vegetables either mixed or on top of each other on a large plate. Top with the cooked vegetables, then the sauce. Garnish with one or all of the listed garnishes.
One recipe i used when i first made this was from The Complete Vegetarian, which is not a vegan cookbook.

Green Papaya and Carrot Salad

Filed under: Gluten Free, Low Calorie Density, Salads — admin @ 1:03 am

Green Papaya and Carrot with Scallion Chili and Lime Dressing

Green Papaya and Carrot Salad

We shop at an Asian market every couple of weeks, and there i found julienned papaya. I had loved the movie The Scent of Green Papaya, which shows a woman making green papaya salad. I jumped at the chance to make it myself. I brought it home and Googled several recipes. The green papaya salad in the movie was Vietnamese, and that is the recipe i followed most closely, but there are many more recipes for Thai green papaya salad than Vietnamese.

The Vietnamese green papaya salad is called Goi Du Du. The Thai green papaya salad is called Som Tum.

Green papaya is altogether a different creature than ripe papaya. It is light green and tastes slightly bitter, more like a vegetable than a fruit. It keeps in the refrigerator several days. Unfortunately i didn’t go to the Asian market last week, so the papaya i got was not really an unripe green, and in the picture you can see that it is already fairly orange. It also didn’t julienne quite right. It still tasted good, so you can try the salad even if you can’t find green papaya, although it is not exactly the same.

The texture of the salad is better if you julienne the papaya, but you can shred it if you don’t want to take the time.

I used Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste for the chilies. You can use fresh Thai chilies, or other hot or mild chilies. Chop them up and put them in a blender, food processor, or motar and pestle.

Gai Du Du – Green Papaya Salad

Makes 4 servings
Preparation about 20 minutes if you julienne the papaya
Best served immediately, but you do everything but put it together ahead if you want

1 green papaya
2 carrots
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
2 scallions
Zest of 1 lime
½ c. lime juice – about 5 limes
½ t. – 1 T. chili paste
¼ c. Thai or European fresh basil
1 T. low sodium tamari (optional)
2 T. roasted peanuts (optional)

Julienne the papaya into thin 1/8 x 2 inch matchsticks. Grate the carrots. Slice the scallions into thin rounds.

Make the dressing: Zest the lime and then juice it and enough limes to make ½ c. juice. Mince the garlic and add to the ½ c. juice and zest. Add the sugar and tamari. Stir in the chili paste.

Chop the basil into fine pieces and add to the dressing with the scallions.

Mix the papaya and carrot. Top with dressing and garnish with a few peanuts on top.

If you can, serve immediately. Otherwise, the tamari will color the dressing as it is in the photo.

Adapted from Green Papaya Salad at the Passionate Eater.

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress