In the winter I love hearty dishes and carbohydrate rich comfort food, but as it gets warm I crave for lighter meals. And, salads are a great way to have something light, flavorful and healthy for summer meals. Plus they very rarely involve cooking. I often make salads for dinner and we all love it. The other night we were craving for grain free salad so I grilled shrimps, fried lotus root chips, chopped delicious greens, added some more ingredients, then tossed it all with nuoc cham. It turned out a great salad.
I adore nuoc cham. Have you tried it? I am sure you have, if you haven’t, you must. I guarantee you’ll love it. It’s a Vietnamese condiment used for a number of dishes as a dipping sauce, marinade, and dressing. With a perfect balance of sweet, sour, salty and spicy flavors, it’s a dynamite for your taste buds. I urge you to try this dressing and add surprising flavor to your Asian salads. I usually make double quantity of this dressing and store it for about a week in the fridge. There are many different ways to prepare nuoc cham, but the basic ingredients are usually fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, water, along with some minced or chopped garlic and chilies.
To make this salad, start off with making nuoc cham (the dressing). If using frozen shrimps (like me) put them in a colander and let cold water run over it or you can thaw the shrimp a night before in the refrigerator and then drain well. Spread the shrimps out on a paper towel, cover with another paper towel and pat dry before grilling. Then you can prepare the salad with whatever salad fixing you like.
The salad recipe below with lotus root chips is good for 4 adults, but if you think it won’t be quite enough to make your family happy, you can easily supplement with crusty bread or add noodles to the salad. I prefer lotus root chips. Filled with lots of vitamins and minerals, and fiber, lotus root is very healthy. It is also low in calories and fat content. That means you can enjoy a dessert after that. Doesn’t that sound perfect to you? It certainly does to me.
A summer-fresh salad packed with protein and vitamins.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 2 tbsp honey or sugar or any other sweetener
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- salt to taste
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced
- 2 red thai chillies, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 half head of romaine lettuce, washed and thinly sliced
- 1 bunch watercress, thin stems and leaves only
- 4 handfuls of spring mix salad
- 1/3 cup Vietnamese mint, coarsely chopped (optional)
- 1 mango, diced
- 1 large carrot, shredded or julienne
- 1/3 cup unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped
- 1 packet (200g) lotus root, sliced
- oil for frying
- 18-20 thawed jumbo shrimps, peeled, deveined and tails on
- 2 tbsp nuoc cham dressing
- 1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- salt and red chili powder to taste
Instructions
- To make the dressing combine the fish sauce, rice vinegar, honey/sugar and water in a saucepan and place over medium heat.
- Stir well and cook just until before boiling point is reached, then remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Stir in lime juice, and add garlic and chilies.
- Store in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 7 days.
- In a resealable plastic bag, combine shrimps, nuoc cham, cilantro, a little bit of salt and red chili powder.
- Seal bag and turn to coat.
- Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Thread shrimps onto 4 soaked wooden skewers. Lightly brush the grill with cooking oil.
- Grill shrimp, covered, over medium heat or broil 4" from the heat for 3-4 minutes on each side.
- Heat some oil in a small pan.
- Fry lotus chips.Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine leafy greens, mango, herb and carrot together.
- Remove shrimp from skewers, arrange over salad. Sprinkle chopped roasted peanuts and serve salad with lotus root chips and 'nuoc cham' on the side.
easyfoodsmith
Never tried this dressing but going through the ingredients I can imagine how good it must be with this beautiful salad. Thanks for sharing.
Juliana
Beautiful salad Balvinder…so colorful and refreshing…I love the idea of lotus root chips…this is my kind of meal.
Have a wonderful weekend 😀
Monica
So that’s how nuoc cham is made! Everytime I enjoy some dish with it, I vaguely wonder what’s in it/how it’s made! This is the type of salad I’d love to have again and again. Looks great, and the lotus root chips are a very nice, unusual touch.
Bam's Kitchen
Beautiful salad! I know my boys would like the dressing as we use nuoc cham as a dip for many Asian dishes we make at home. Take care, BAM
anne
During summer , I call our small kitchen , Hell’s Kitchen , the less time I spend there , so much the better 😛 Love your refreshing and very appetizing salad , the nouc cham sounds wonderful in this kind of easy to whip up summer treat !
Choc Chip Uru
The crunchiness of the root chips with the lovely fresh salad would be delicious – what a great recipe 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Ansh
There is nothing better than fried lotus chips! The kashmiri in me would love this salad just for the chips!! So flavorful.
minnie@thelady8home
Haven’t had lotus chips in eons…..crisp, refreshing…the plate is calling my name. Delicious!
Jennifer Eloff
This is about the second or third time I’ve seen fried lotus root on the internet. I can’t find that over here in Panama. 🙂 Your salad looks special. Have a great week!
Kitchen Belleicious
those lotus root chips look amazing. I never had those before but they look like something I would want to snack on all day long! the salad is amazing
Angie@Angie's Recipes
This is a great salad. I love those shrimp and lotus root chips.