T’was a lovely sunny day. The sky was crisp blue, the sun was shining and the first blowfly had been banging against This Little Pigs study since about 10am. Spring was on its way. Inspired by the glorious weather, This Little Pig trotted to the fridge late morning to see what it could get its snout into for lunch. Several items fell out onto This Little Pigs head (sometimes this fine swine has so much food in its fridge it feels quite anxious about it) and immediately a porcine brainwave occurred. A Spring Super Asian Fusion Salad Bowl (try saying that quickly!) was the choice for this lovely lunchtime fare.
Now this recipe when reading through looks slightly tricky, but only to the untrained eye dear piglets! Basically all a swine needs to do is just chop everything up, stir-fry a few things for about a minute each, serve it into a big bowl, squeeze a lime over it and Bob’s your granddad! Delightful lunch served. There is something to be said about having a visually beautiful meal and also having the element of being hands on when putting it together. It makes it fun to prepare and also incredibly delicious to eat. So what are you waiting for sweet piglet? This is delightful stuff!
Ingredients of Super Salad-ness
1 x Asparagus Bunch
1 x Lebanese Cucumber
1 x Avocado
½ x Cup of Quinoa
2 x Garlic Cloves
10 x Button Mushrooms
¼ x Kale Bunch
2 x Eggs
½ x Dill Bunch
½ x Mint Bunch
1 x Lime
6 x Spring Onions
1 x Tbs Sesame Oil – for the asparagus
1 x Tsp Peanut Oil – for the egg
Ingredients of Mushroom Pickling Items:
1 x Tbs Peanut Oil
1 x Tsp Sugar
1 x Tbs Vinegar
Ingredients of Salad Dressing:
Good scrunch of salt and pepper
1 x Tbs Soy
1 x Tbs Sesame Oil
Method of Super Salad-ness:
- Half fill a medium pot with water and bring to the boil.
- Pour in your quinoa (1/2 cup) and continue to boil for around 10 mins or until quinoa is soft and fluffy. Drain well, then return to the pot and pop on its lid to sit and continue to get fluffy.
- Chop off the woody base ends of the asparagus (1 bunch) and slice into 3cm pieces on a diagonal (to make it look fancy).
- Chop off spring onion (6) ends and slice on diagonals (again to be fancy) into small circles.
- Quarter mushrooms (10).
- Chop off kale (1/4 bunch) stalks and discard them (yell “goodbye, you will never stalk me again!” as you throw stalks in the bin, just to give the whole thing a bit of drama) and finely dice kale leaves.
- Skin and finely dice garlic cloves (2).
- Peel your Lebanese cucumber (1) into ribbons – if you don’t have a peeler (that’s ridiculous, go buy one right now piglet) you can slice them into very fine sticks.
- Slice your avocado (1) in half and then peel the skin off carefully (or you can use a soup spoon to scoop him out). Slice into long thin strips and season with some pepper and salt.
- Heat a large fry pan and pour in your sesame oil (1 Tbs) and heat until hot to trot. Add in your asparagus pieces and sliced garlic and sauté for around 1 min or until asparagus is shiny, bright green and warmed through (we still want a nice crrrrunch though).
- Pour your cooked asparagus and garlic out onto a big, handsome serving board and then place the fry pan back onto the heat. Add in your diced kale and squeeze over half of your lime and cook until kale has warmed through and reduced by about half.
- Remove your kale from the pan (pour him onto the big board too) and again pop the pan back onto the heat and pour in your peanut oil (1 Tbs).
- Once oil is hot to trot, add in your mushrooms and sauté for about 30 seconds. Now pour in your sugar (1 Tsp) and vinegar (1 Tbs) and continue to stir until mushrooms are golden brown and sticky. Once ready, pour onto your lovely serving board.
- Clean out the fry pan (or grab a new one – lets be frivolous) and heat your peanut oil (1 Tsp) on a high heat until hot trot. Now crack in your two eggs and lower to a medium heat. Fry your eggs until your desired consistency.
- Rip your dill (1/2) and mint (1/2) leaves of their stem ready for garnishing.
- It is now time to put together your glorious salad Asian fusion bowl. Roll up your organic linen sleeves piglets we’re about to get crazy.
- Grab a big bowl and pop a little bit of everything into it (quinoa, asparagus, avocado, pickled mushrooms, kale, spring onions, cucumber). Drizzle the bowls with your salad dressing (1 Tbs soy + 1 Tbs Sesame Oil), squeeze the rest of your lime over, pop your fried egg on top and give it a good scrunch of salt and pepper. Sprinkle over your mint & dill leaves. Grab your chopsticks, find a patch of sun and tuck into a completely glorious bowl of spring goodness.
