Spring Roll Salad With Carrot Ginger Dressing
10 colors
THE WHY BEHIND THIS RECIPE
This is my go-to recipe when I don’t feel like turning on the oven or cooking, but I want something light and flavorful. Imagine the spring rolls from your favorite Vietnamese spot, but turned into a meal-worthy salad with more nutrients and a little more zhuzh.
For a lower glycemic, more blood sugar friendly alternative to rice noodles, I use miracle noodles which are made with Konjac Flour (use code SONJAKM for 10% off). Konjac flour is made from a root vegetable that grows in parts of Asia. It’s known for its starchy corm stem. It’s low in carbohydrates and has some sneaky fiber in there! 1 bag of miracle noodles have 6g of carbs and 4g of fiber. They also take .23 seconds to make in a pan so they are easy peasy.
Serving size: Serves 2-3, double the recipe for 4-6.
Total Time = 15 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED
Salad:2 bags of miracle noodles
1 pepper (I like using red or yellow for color diversity), diced
1 cup of carrots, julienned or shredded (note you’ll need 2 more large carrots for the dressing)
1 cup mint, chopped
1 cup green onions, chopped
1 cup edamame (I usually buy the organic frozen edamame here and it’s just so dang easy)
1 whole cabbage (green or purple!), mandolined or roughly chopped
Sesame seeds (for topping!)
Optional add-ins for ZHUZH:Chopped avocado
1 orange, thinly sliced (adds some lovely citrus flavor which I’m a fan of!)
Protein of choice! Shrimp, chicken, tofu etc. - marinated either in the dressing for this salad or just a simple peanut butter, tamari, avocado oil, lime juice blend (you can’t really go wrong with a marinade)
Carrot Ginger dressing:⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
⅓ cup rice vinegar
2 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped (about ⅔ cup)
2 tablespoons peeled and roughly chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tsp honey
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
HOW TO DO IT
For the salad:Chop up all of the ingredients and combine into a bowl. Use a mandolin to help make chopping easier if you have one.
Strain the miracle noodles under water and then cook according to directions (usually just on a dry pan for 2-3 minutes until dry).
For the dressing:Roughly chop the carrots and ginger, and then combine everything except the olive oil into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Taste it and add more ginger, honey, salt, etc. as you desire.
Then add olive oil at the end and blend it on a lower speed. When you blend olive oil on high speed it can draw out bitter phenolic compounds and make it taste a little bitter. Adding it at the end is an easy way to avoid that!
SWAPS, TIPS & TRICKS
Choose your own veggie adventures: You can do really any veggies you want here. If you don’t have edamame but you do have a cucumber, add in a cucumber!! If you don’t like avocado (weird but I know there are some of you), omit it!
Toppings: If you love peanuts and want more crunch, add those on top.
Storing: If you are making a large batch for 2-3 meals, store the dressing separately and toss when you are ready to serve.
Nutritional Info
This does NOT factor in your added protein.
Per serving, makes about 3 servings
Calories: 502
Total Fat: 36g
Carbs: 40g
Fiber: 16g
Net Carbs: 24g
Protein: 12g
Sugars: 15g
