Raw Thai citrus salad with zucchini
This recipe uses zoodles to create a vibrant salad that captures the sweet, salty, spicy, and sour symphony of Thai cuisine.
This salad is adapted from a recipe in A Modern Way to Eat. Replace traditional noodles with zucchini cut into zoodles to play on the Pad Thai flavors.
This salad has that sweet, salty, spicy, and sour balance typical of Thai cuisine, while being guilt-free and satisfying.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 zucchinis
- 3 medium carrots, peeled (If using a spiralizer, choose thicker carrots. 1 1/2-inch diameter works best.)
- 1/2 head cabbage
- 1 red bell pepper
- 4 green onions
- 1 pink grapefruit
- 1 lime
- 1 small bunch of basil
- 1 large bunch of cilantro
- 2 medjool dates, pitted
- 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 small red chili (seeds removed), finely chopped
- Juice of 1 lime
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce or tamari (I use reduced-sodium soy)
- Generous 1/2 cup of raw cashews, soaked in water for a couple hours, then drained
- Optional garnish: Raw cashews, chopped up
Special equipment: spiralizer, or zoodle-maker
Directions
- Use a spiralizer to make noodles out of the zucchini and carrots. If you don’t have one, use a shredder or vegetable peeler.
- Chop the cabbage finely. Slice the red bell pepper and green onions finely. Add all of the spiralized and chopped veggies to a large bowl.
- Now prepare the grapefruit and lime. Cut the end and top off each piece of fruit. This makes a solid base to cut the fruit on. Peel the sides with a knife, removing the pith in the process. Now you should easily be able to cut out the fruit segments. Break these segments into juicy bits with your hands and add them to the bowl with the veggies.
- Roughly chop the basil and cilantro, then add all the basil and half the cilantro to the bowl. You can refrigerate all of this until you are ready to serve.
- To make the dressing, put dates, ginger, garlic, chili, lime juice, soy sauce, and cashews into a blender with about 1/2 cup of water. Process until smooth. Add a little more water if the dressing isn’t loose enough.
- Right before serving, add the dressing to the salad and mix it all up, making sure everything is coated well.
- Salt to taste. Top with the chopped cashews and remaining cilantro.
- If you have leftovers that sit in the fridge, a lot of moisture will come out. I just pour this off and move on. It makes great leftovers!
Nutrition information (per serving)
- Calories: 293
- Total fat: 12 g
- Saturated fat: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
- Sodium: 372 mg
- Total carbohydrate: 41 g
- Dietary fiber: 9 g
- Total sugars: 23 g
- Protein: 9 g
Potassium: 912 mg