Friday, January 22, 2010

Cold Asian Salad

Abbie's Cold Asian Salad
(measurements approximate, as I typically just season everything to taste. I tried to be as accurate as possible though). THIS CAN BE a GLUTEN FREE recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 bag of Kroger's premade Asian Slaw (basically it's julienned carrots, red cabbage, and broccoli in a bag fresh)
1 box of gluten-free elbow noodles
2 chicken breasts
1/2 bottle of Asian Peanut Sauce (you can buy this premade, or make it yourself)
** I made my own with this recipe: **
2 large scoops of crunchy organic Peanut Butter
2 tbsp Tabasco Sauce or hot sauce (to taste, more if you like it spicier)
1/3 bottle of Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce (or see substitutions)
1 tbsp Ginger (spice powder)

Directions:
1) cook the noodles, drain, run them under cold water, drain (repeat if necessary, you want the noodles to be cool). Put noodles in big salad bowl.
2) boil the chicken, then chop, add chicken to the salad bowl.
3) Add the slaw mix to the salad bowl.
4) IF making your own sauce: In small saucepan, heat the Asian Peanut Sauce Ingredients until mixed and PB is not clumpy. the peanuts in the crunchy PB will float on top, that is okay. Put the Sauce mixture into a bottle or bowl and refridgerate to get it cold. Shake well before putting on the salad.
IF NOT making your own sauce, just be sure the sauce is refridgerated first.
5) Finally, pour Asian Peanut Sauce over the salad, mix well to coat all the ingredients.
Chill (if needed) and Serve. Serves 6 (or big portions for 4).

Substitutions:
1) Alternative to Trader Joe's Soyaki Sauce: You can substitute gluten-free soy sauce, water, garlic powder, and some sugar or sweetener to make your own gluten-free soyaki sauce)
2) Can use 2 cans of Canned Chicken (drain the excess water) instead of having to cook/chop the chicken breasts. It's faster.
3) Can use any noodle you want. I happened to have the elbow noodles in my cupboard at the time.
4) For the Asian Peanut Sauce - Can use grated ginger root instead of the spice powder, if you prefer.
5) Can add more peanuts if you prefer.
6) I think chopped water chestnut would also be tasty in this salad.
7) You can use canned Tuna instead of Chicken if you desire.
8) If you're trying to low-carb, then you can use spaghetti squash as the noodles instead of pasta.

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