Attack of the Veggies! Part II.

As a Midwesterner, I'd be remiss to dismiss the wonderful nature of meat and potatoes, but echoing Randi's sentiments, sometimes you just need your vegetables.  We both came to this conclusion separately this week and while Randi went to Greece, I found myself in Asia by way of Great Britain.  And what I mean by that is that I gathered some inspiration from Nigella Express.

Nigella includes a recipe for an Asian-inspired salad using tom yum paste and bean sprouts.  I had neither on hand and I kind of hate bean sprouts, so I modified the recipe to feed 8 people and include whatever I had lying around in my fridge.  This recipe is super simple and involves little cooking.  Mostly it's prep work and blanching, which I find strangely therapeutic.

Sriracha-inspired salad (Serves 8)
1/4 c rice wine vinegar
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil

1.5 T sesame oil

1 T honey

3-4 T sriracha (depending on how spicy you like things)
4 cloves garlic, peeled, boiled for ~5 minutes, and mashed
kosher or sea salt to taste

2 spring onions, sliced

2 cans baby corn, drained, rinsed, and chopped into bite sized pieces

~2 c red cabbage, sliced

broccoli florets from ~3 crowns, blanched for ~3 minutes

~1/2 lb green beans, blanched for ~2 minutes
4 chicken breasts, baked, cooled, and sliced

For the dressing: whisk together rice wine vinegar, EVOO, sesame oil, honey, sriracha, garlic, and a pinch of salt.  Make sure the garlic is super mashed up.  I actually pass the boiled garlic through the garlic press.  Taste and season if necessary.  Or add more sriracha because you're obsessed.  I won't judge. :)

To blanch: bring a large pot of water to boil with a lot of kosher salt.  As Thomas Keller says, it should taste like the sea.  Once you get a rolling boil, add in the vegetable of choice to blanch for the prescribed amount of time.  Different vegetables take different amounts of time.  Remove the vegetable from the water and immediately shock in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

To assemble:  Toss everything in a large bowl.

This definitely gets better with age.  The other awesome thing about this recipe is that you can sub in whatever vegetables you have on hand.  I've made this a couple times now just for myself and I've used spinach instead of red cabbage and leeks instead of spring onions.  It's all very flexible and no matter what, pretty much anything is delicious when it's coated with the sriracha dressing.