Friday, June 5, 2009

Kung Pao Salad A La Cinnamon and Spice


First, Muneeba at http://anediblesymphony.blogspot.com/ awarded me with the One Lovely Blog award. My task it to pass this on to 10 new blogs I have found! So I will be gather my list of folks over the next few days, until then please go to An Edible Symphony and check it out!

Let me start by saying this makes a big salad. It easily serves 4 people very hearty dinner sized salads, VERY easily. You can use whatever veggies or lettuces you want, this is just what I used. Also, if you don’t eat meat I think if you used tofu for this it would be amazing.

The original Kung Pao recipe came from Reni over at Cinnamon and Spice, http://cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.blogspot.com/ . I can’t tell you how much I love this recipe. I have made it about 4 times now. The other night I had everything I needed but the rice….go figure. I did have soba noodles, but that wasn’t quite doing it for me. You guys know I have been on a crazy salad kick… well I thought… why not. It was wonderful. Actually so good the first time I made it we ate it up like little piggies (I had brought ½ over to my folks for dinner…so don‘t judge!) and never got a picture. Sigh…I guess this just meant I had to make it again. Another side, is if you want to cut calories or cut hassle you can bag the soba noodles (they are surprisingly calorie dense). They don’t add a lot, but are good flavor catchers, but not necessary if you are trying to simplify.


Salad
1 zucchini ribboned
2 small carrots ribboned and chopped
1 bunch of green onion
½ bunch cilantro (remove the stems just add leaves)
½ head of broccoli blanched
2 heaping handfuls of spinach chopped
¼ package soba

Boil water and add soba noodles and cook to package directions, drain and let cool. Add all veggies to a bowl and toss.

Chicken
1.5 lb of chicken diced
3/4 cup roasted peanuts
4-6 fine slices ginger, each cut into quarters
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns(I use red pepper flakes)
1 tbs oil

Heat oil add pepper and fry the peppercorns for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the chicken, garlic, ginger, and onion. Stir-fry these to allow the flavor to come out, then add the peanuts. Take of heat and allow to cool.

Once chicken and soba are cool add to salad.


Dressing

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons red rice vinegar
1 table spoon cooking wine


Wisk together and toss with salad. Eat…yummy.

8 comments:

Chef E said...

That looks great, and makes me want...well, to have hubby bring home take out...I still cannot drive, or I would so go to the Asian store, and market for some of those delish ingredients...

Your not going to believe this, but the word verification is 'reensi'

Tatersmama said...

This looks delicious and I'm going to give it a try!

Thanks for sharing. :-)

Kristen said...

It looks really tasty - gotta love these all in one meal salads for summer :o)

Reeni said...

Your so clever for turning this into a salad! How delicious!! I have to try this next time I make it. That's so funny about the reensi!

Donna-FFW said...

I saw this on Reenis site also, and it sounded incredible. It looks delicious here as a salad as well. Lovely, great flavors.

teresa said...

This look delicious! Great job!

Heather S-G said...

YUM!! You're on a delicious salad kick lately...and I like it :D

Chris said...

Kung Pao works for me! Never thought of it as a salad, how cool.

...errr I mean hot.