It’s been hot lately. Really hot. And we don’t have AC. My kitchen is often 83° by dinnertime. Our meals have given over to salad, salad and more salad, mainly following this simple formula: leftover starch + leftover protein + greens from the garden + dressing = dinner on a hot day.
Making salad into dinner is all about getting enough fat and protein into it. And if you are wondering how to do that, the answer is peanut sauce. One of our favorite summer meals, for a day when I have a little more energy, and am craving for something extra delicious, is Thai Salad Rolls. If you are interested, we could do a class on how to make them. They’re a bit tricky, but once you get the hang of it, not much harder than any other homemade dinner.
But for today, don’t worry about gussying up. This peanut sauce is ridiculously quick and easy, but tastes like you are at a Thai restaurant, and someone else is serving you (ah, remember the days?) To turn it into dinner, just set the table with leftover rice or noodles, whatever kind of meat or beans or tofu you have on hand, and a big bowl of salad greens. If you have fresh cilantro and basil on the side, you will truly be transported.
Let everyone layer up their own bowl, then drizzle the peanut sauce dressing generously over everything.
Dinner!
Thai Peanut Sauce
Serves 4
Easy
Want to hang onto this?
Want to use a whole can of coconut milk and have extra for the freezer?
Ingredients
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup broth
- ½ – 2 teaspoons Thai yellow curry paste
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger
- 1 small clove garlic
- 1 ½ Tablespoons brown sugar
- ¼ lime
- ½ teaspoon fish sauce
- pinch or two of salt
Instructions
Prepare the whole ingredients by mincing the garlic and ginger, and zesting and squeezing the lime. Then measure everything into a blender and whiz the heck out of it. That’s it!
Set the table with noodles or rice, leftover meat, beans or tofu, and plenty of salad greens, then let everyone layer up their own Thai Salad Bowl. Fresh herbs like cilantro and basil make this meal nearly transcendental.
Spicy Index: ½ teaspoon yellow curry paste makes this recipe not at all hot. 1 = mildly spicy, 1 ½ = medium and 2 = spicy.
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