Recipe of the Week: Thai Lemongrass Salad

thai%20salad.jpg Our daughter has been scouring cookbooks this week making lists of recipes she would like me to try. This has proven to be a great help because deciding what to cook can sometimes be more time consuming than making the meal. Of course, the other benefit is that she can’t complain about what shows up on the table, a big bonus when feeding a teenager. This recipe turned out to be a real winner. It is light and has a refreshing taste and would be a great dish for a hot summer day. If you cook the rice the night before, it’s simply a matter of tossing the ingredients together. The recipe calls for chicken and that’s what I made it with, but we all agreed that fried tofu would also be delicious.

Thai Lemongrass Salad

2 tbsp peanut oil
2 stalks lemongrass, finely chopped
2 small red chilies, seeded and finely chopped
4 spring onions, sliced
4 cups cooked rice (long grain works best)
3 cups shredded cooked chicken (optional) or fried tofu
1 cup shredded mint
¾ cup cilantro leaves (coriander), chopped
4 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce

Heat a frying pan or wok over high heat. Add the oil, lemongrass, chilies and spring onions and cook for 3 minutes. Place rice, chicken or tofu, mint, cilantro, lime leaves and lemongrass mixture into a bowl and toss to combine. Combine the lime juice, sugar and fish sauce and pour over the salad. Chill until ready to serve.

Serves 4

This recipe is from Off the Shelf by Donna Hay