How to make water spinach salad and how to make delicious salad dressing
In this article, Fatty Cook will share the method to make water spinach salad that is green and crispy, along with the recipe for making water spinach salad dressing that has a balanced taste.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch of water spinach
- 50g Vietnamese balm
- 80 - 100g peanuts
- 5-6 garlic cloves
- 1-2 chili peppers
- Seasoning: Fish sauce, sugar, vinegar, fresh lime, grain salt
- 1/4 spoon of grain salt
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 chili peppers
- 5.5 spoons of sugar
- 2 spoons of fish sauce
- 4 spoons of vinegar
- 1 spoon of lime juice
Ingredient Notes
Choose spinach that is crisp, with few leaves, and bright green stems. However, avoid choosing water spinach that has deep red stems as it may taste a bit bitter.
Instructions
Preparing Water Spinach
First, remove all leaves from the water spinach, retaining only a few leaves at the tip. For tasty and crunchy water spinach salad, we primarily use the stem. After removing leaves, break the stem into pieces at your desired length, typically the length of a finger joint.
After that, rinse and soak the water spinach in lightly salted water for 2-3 minutes, then clean and let it drain.
Preparing Other Ingredients
Pick the young leaves and tips of the Vietnamese balm, soak and rinse them in salted water, then drain well and finely chop.
Peel the garlic and finely chop. Rinse the chili and chop it finely as well.
Roast the peanuts until they turn golden brown, let them cool off, then remove the skin and roughly crush them. Avoid crushing the peanuts too finely as it may make the water spinach salad mushy.
Blanching Water Spinach
It's recommended to blanch the water spinach to remove the bitterness before making the salad. Boil a pot of water and add a bit of salt. When the water is boiling, add in the water spinach for blanching. Don't blanch for too long, remove immediately after putting into the boiling water.
To keep the water spinach crunchy and green, immediately immerse it in a bowl of ice water after blanching. The ice will make the water spinach regain its crunchiness and prevent it from discoloring.
Mixing Salad Dressing
For the quantity of ingredients listed above, crush 1/4 spoon of rock salt with 4-5 garlic cloves and 2 hot peppers. Mix this salt-garlic-chili mixture with 5.5 spoons of sugar, 2 spoons of fish sauce, 4 spoons of diluted vinegar, and 1 spoon of lemon juice.
Stir well until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Now the salad dressing has a balanced sour, spicy, salty, sweet taste. You can also use this dressing recipe for pickling cucumbers, papaya salad or chicken cabbage salad.
Mixing Water Spinach Salad
When the water spinach is drained, place it in a large bowl, pour half of the salad dressing in, gently mix well and let it marinate for about 5 minutes. Then, drain the excess dressing from the bowl.
Pour the remaining dressing into the bowl of water spinach, add nearly all of the Vietnamese balm and 2/3 of the roasted peanuts, mix well and again drain the excess dressing. You can also squeeze the water spinach to make it slightly wilted, which will make it crunchier when eaten.
Place the water spinach salad on a plate, sprinkle the remaining Vietnamese balm and peanuts on top, garnish with chili cut into flower shapes and your water spinach salad is ready.
Cookbeo suggests mixing the salad with the dressing and enjoying it immediately. If the mixed salad is left for too long, the water spinach will discolor and turn a slightly yellowish color, losing its appeal.
