Ask a Chef: Tangled Thai Salad Recipe

A healthy faux-noodle vegetable salad.
Q: I’ve never been a huge fan of salad, but the Tangled Thai Salad at Fresh in Toronto has me obsessed. Can you get me the recipe? – Jane, Richmond Hill
A: Jennifer Houston — head chef and co-owner of Fresh in Toronto — uses a turning slicer (or “spiralizer”) to make this salad’s signature super long, noodle-like strands of carrot and yellow beet.
Ingredients
Serves 1
Salad
- 1 cup chopped napa cabbage
- 1/3 cup jicama, cut into small sticks
- 2/3 cup peeled raw carrot, spiralized
- 2/3 cup peeled raw yellow beets, spiralized
- 4 tbsp Peanut Lime Dressing (recipe follows)
- 3 slices cucumber, halved
- 2 tsp chopped raw peanuts
- 2 tbsp Fresh Salad Topper (recipe follows)
- 1/4 lime
- Cilantro to taste
Peanut Lime Dressing
- 1 tbsp ginger, peeled and chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 3/4 tsp sambal oelek (a South Asian chili sauce)
- 2 tbsp cilantro, densely packed
- 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
- 2 tbsp plus 2 tsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp plus 1/2 tsp tamari (a type of soy sauce)
- 1-1/2 tsp organic sugar
- 2 tsp coconut milk
- 3/4 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 cup sunflower oil
Fresh Salad Topper
- 1 cup puffed quinoa
- 1/4 cup goji berries
- 1/4 cup currants
- 2 tbsp sliced almonds
- 2 tbsp hazelnuts, chopped
- 2 tbsp pistachios, chopped
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Directions
Salad
- Put cabbage into a large bowl and top with jicama. Pile the carrot and beet strands on top and drizzle with Peanut Lime Dressing.
- Garnish with cucumber, peanuts, Fresh Salad Topper, lime and cilantro
Peanut Lime Dressing
- In a blender, puree all but sunflower oil. With blender running, add oil in a thin stream.
Makes 1 cup, enough for 4 salads
Fresh Salad Topper
- Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix.
Makes approx. 1-3/4 cups; refrigerate unused portions