VIETNAMESE SALAD

Recipe by Ruth Wood at Crucial Food

Vietnamese food is best known for being crunchy, sweet or sour and pretty colourful. It’s also very nutritious food, featuring a lot of fresh vegetables and herbs. The dressing is sweet and sour, with a red chilli to give it some punch.

Peanuts are a common addition in many Vietnamese dishes as they’re an important crop and major export for Vietnam. They add another texture to to this but as they’re a common allergen, they can be replaced by pumpkin seeds or another nut such as cashews.

This is delicious on its own or with added protein such as smoked tofu, grilled meat, fish or seafood.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 sweetheart or Savoy cabbage, finely shredded
  • 1/4 red cabbage, finely shredded
  • 4 spring onions, sliced diagonally
  • 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
  • 2 carrots, grated
  • 1/4 cucumber, thinly sliced
  • 2 handfuls raw unsalted peanuts
  • 10g fresh coriander, chopped
  • 10g fresh mint, chopped

For the dressing:

  • 2 tablespoons each of lime juice, fish sauce, olive oil, rice wine vinegar
  • 1 garlic, clove minced or finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon Sweet Freedom or honey

Method 

  1. Put all the ingredients into a big salad bowl
  2. Combine all the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad, combine and dig in

Have it as it is or serve with smoked tofu, grilled meat, fish or seafood. If you have a nut allergy, replace the peanuts with toasted pumpkin seeds. If you don’t have peanuts, replace with another nut such as cashews

Thank you to the Crucial Food and Ruth for providing this recipe.

Check out the Crucial Food website here and their instagram here

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