Napa cabbage salad with peanuts and cilantro

This is a super simple salad that depends on great ingredients. I love Napa cabbage, or Chinese cabbage as it is called in India. It has a light flavour with a lovely crunch and serves as a healthy base for any salad dressing. It is versatile and also used in stews, soups, and as a wrapper for stuffed rolls.

This salad is delicious. The crunchy lettuce pops with spice from the chillies and is nutty from the peanuts. Light and nutritious, this is a lovely salad.

This is a beautiful cookbook from a master chef specialising in vegetarian cuisine. The recipes use ingredients that are procured from the numerous excellent farmer's markets in and around San Francisco. It gives the cookbook a unique perspective on using the fresh and sometimes unique ingredients available. Deborah Madison has published numerous cookbooks, is vegetarian, and runs the fantastic Greens restaurant in San Francisco. She taught me that vegetables can be stars on the table and do not need to be sidelined by protein. This cookbook highlights fresh, organic produce, vegetables, and fruit, bringing out the best in them.

For more recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup ready-roasted peanuts

1 large carrot, peeled into long strips with a potato peeler or on a mandolin

1 small Napa cabbage, thinly sliced

2 cups lettuce, thinly sliced

3 scallions, thinly sliced into rounds

2 tablespoons mint

2 tablespoons Thai basil, torn

For the dressing:

1 jalapeño chilli, or another spicy green chilli, minced

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

4 tablespoons peanut oil

First, make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl. Allow the dressing to marinate for 2 hours to extract the spice from the chillies.

Mix the carrots, Napa cabbage, lettuce, scallions, mint and basil and set aside.

When ready to serve, toss with the dressing and garnish with the peanuts.