Cooked Vegetable Salad with Almond/Peanut Sauce

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Prep time: 10 minute
Cook time: 15 minute
Serves: 2-4 servings
Ingredients:

Cooked Vegetable salad ingredients:

• 1 pack of firm tofu

• 2-4 eggs (one per person), omit to make this dish vegan

• 4-6 varieties of vegetables (Feel free to use any in-season produce. I listed some of the ones I use below):

  • 2 tomatoes (farmers market ones are especially sweet)

  • half pound of green beans, snow peas, or sugar snap peas

  • 2-4 baby bok choy

  • 4-6 celery stalks

  • 1 medium or 2 small zucchini

  • 2 bell peppers

  • 6-8 leaves of radicchio

  • 4-6 large leaves of napa cabbage

  • 1 cup of diced kabocha squash

  • 1 English cucumber or 2 mini cucumbers

Homemade Almond or peanut sauce:

• 2 tbsp of avocado oil

• 4 garlic cloves, sliced

• (Optional) 4 kaffir lime leaves

• 1-inch kaempferia galanga or ginger, peeled

• 1 and 1/2 cup of roasted peanuts / almonds, or 1 cup of toasted almond / peanut butter

• 1 cup of water (more if needed)

• 1 tsp of tamarind concentrate / paste or 1 tbsp of lemon juice

• 6 tbs of date or coconut palm sugar, shaved

• 2 tbsp of tamari (Start with 2, add more to taste)

OR

Easy premade peanut sauce:

• Indonesian Pecel Peanut sauce brick

• 1 cup of peanut butter / almond butter

• 2 tbsp of tamari

• about 1 cup of hot water to mix (more if needed)

Note: the reason I use Pecel and not Gabo Gabo is because the latter typically contains soy sauce that is NOT gluten free.

Cooking Tools:

• Saucepan

• Blender / food processor

• Cooking pot (big enough to hold your vegetables whole, though it doesn’t need to be all together at once)

Directions :

1. Add the oil into the saucepan on medium heat.

2. Add garlic and saute till golden brown.

3. Transfer all the peanut sauce ingredients except water to the blender / food processor and blend for a few minutes. Add water, then continue blending until you have a sauce consistency. Taste to adjust flavor to your liking with more tamari, water, or palm sugar.

4. Bring half a pot of water to boil. Add the eggs into the pot.

5. While the eggs are cooking, flash boil the vegetable one type at a time. For leafy vegetables (bok choy, radicchio, etc.), boil for ~30 seconds. For solid items e.g. zucchini and kabocha, cook for 3-5 minutes and check for doneness with a tooth pick (if it’s soft enough to poke through). For everything else the cooking time will vary typically ~3 minutes.

6. As each vegetable finishes cooking, dunk it into a bowl of iced/cold water (optional), or set it on a plate to cool. Once cooled, dice into 1 inch pieces.

7. Serve with peanut sauce and enjoy!

Cooking Tip:

Whether you shop for seasonal produce at the farmers market, or if you order “rescued” produce delivery boxes (aka Imperfect foods, misfits, etc.) - this is the perfect dish to make when you have an abundance of vegetables and are looking for a fun way to eat more of them in a delicious way!

Stay healthy with Annie:

A variety of colorful vegetables will make this dish visually appealing and give it more flavor/texture profile. Each color will also give your body a set different micronutrients it needs to stay healthy.

That aside, steaming/blanching your vegetables also make it gentler on your digestive system, and though the risk is typically low, it can also help you avoid a number of food-borne illnesses from consuming raw foods.