Let me introduce you to the easiest and most flavorful salad ever. This Asian-inspired salad comes together super quick and smacks you in the face with the flavor. I love the funkiness of fish sauce and probably you already know that I do love spicy food. Sadly for my vegan and vegetarian friends, I haven’t figured out a perfect substitute for fish sauce in this recipe, so my best bet is for you to just omit fish sauce and season with salt instead, but it will miss out on some flavor. Sorry! But for the rest of you – make this salad right now! Especially if you are in the middle of zucchini season. It is super light but bursting with flavor. For me, a big bowl of this on a hot summer day is a perfect light lunch. The peanuts give it a nice crunch and some plant protein. If you need more protein, it works well with fried tofu, prawns, or simply steamed white fish too.
As I am writing this post for you now, it is pouring outside, and the super nice and sunny 85F summer weather that we had just 2 weeks ago has been replaced with rain and 50F, so I am missing the summer weather already. Luckily I still have zucchini so at least I can still enjoy summer on my plate!
Zucchini Ribbon Salad
Serves: 1
Cooking time: 10 min
Ingredients:
1 young fresh zucchini (I used yellow, but all colors are ok)
2 medium tomatoes
2 tbsp salted peanuts
A small handful of Thai basil
1 tbsp fish sauce
½ tsp palm sugar
The juice from 1 lime
1 small birds eye chili (use less or omit if you don’t like spice)
Using the vegetable peeler cut the zucchini into thin ribbons. In case your zucchini has large seeds inside, don’t use this part for the salad (it is still ok to use for a soup or stew).
Cut the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces.
Mix the fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice, and finely chopped chili until the sugar has dissolved.
Mix the vegetables with the sauce, add in Thai basil, top with peanuts and enjoy.
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!" Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: www.kahvliga.ee.