First Dish of 2017: Thai-Style Alfalfa Sprouts & Lettuce Salad

First things first, happy new year, folks! Hope you guys had a great New Year’s eve and start of 2017! 🙂

We had a rather quiet New Year celebration, which included shopping for some winter-special veggies at Jayanagar market (a place that I am slowly falling in love with), a nice hearty home-made breakfast of onion adais with moringa leaves, lunching at a quaint bistro that I like, watching the mangala aarti at an Ayappan temple, eating some not-so-nice chaats, hogging on prasadam at a few different temples around us, and some book shopping.

The first dish I made in my kitchen in 2017 was last evening, a Thai-style salad consisting of alfalfa sprouts and lettuce, both ingredients I have bought for the first-ever time. The salad was finger-licking delish, though!

Here’s how I made the salad.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1. 1 cup raw alfalfa sprouts (store-bought)
2. A handful of lettuce leaves, finely chopped
3. 1 small onion, finely chopped
4. A few stalks of fresh coriander, finely chopped
5. 2 teaspoons soya sauce
6. Salt, to taste (Be careful with the salt, since the soya sauce is salty too)
7. 4 tablespoons honey, or to taste
8. 2 green chillies, very finely chopped
9. Juice of 1-1/2 lemons, or to taste
10. 1/4 cup peanuts, dry roasted on medium flame till crunchy, left to cool, skins removed and pulsed for just about a second in the mixer

Method:

Mix together all the ingredients in a large bowl. Serve immediately.

Notes:

1. I purchased the alfalfa sprouts ready-made, but you can make them at home too. There are several recipes online that teach you exactly how to make them.
2. Alfalfa sprouts possess a whole lot of health benefits. Read up all about them here.
3. Alfalfa sprouts are crunchy, but not very chewy. They can be used raw in salads or for other purposes. I used them raw. However, there are several ongoing debates about whether sprouts should be used raw or not. If you aren’t comfortable with using raw sprouts to make this salad, you could steam them for a bit.
4. Make sure you don’t crush the roasted peanuts to a fine powder. Just pulse them for a second, till they are coarsely crushed, and then add them to the salad.
5. You could even add finely chopped ginger and garlic to the salad, if you wish to.

You like? I hope you will try this out at home, too!

***********************

Here are some other salads that I have made and loved:

1. Thai green mango and moong sprouts salad
2. Thai raw mango and onion salad
3. Thai green papaya salad
4. Maharashtrian beetroot-onion raita
5. Moong sprouts and pomegranate salad
6. Kappa kizhangu/ tapioca salad
7. Thai-style moong sprouts and pineapple salad
8. Mexican nacho salad
9. Simple carrot salad
10. Thai-style water chestnut salad