healthy vietnamese food
SaladBar
VietnameseSalad
Vietnamese salad - light, refreshing, and easy to prepare recipes
Vietnam
is a wonderland where healthy and delicious food are always available and the
most natural flavor of the ingredient is loved and elevated to a whole new
level. What is more ideal than the fact that you can have stunning dishes in
daily meal but never be afraid of gaining weight while your skin keeps
whitening and stronger than ever. It is Vietnamese salad that is the key to
healthy side of our cuisine. This kind of food is plentiful in different
versions, different combinations but harmonizes in flavor to create the best
fresh dish.
Little
is known about when Vietnamese salad (Nộm) was first made but it has been long
enough in daily treat of Vietnamese people that eating Nộm has become a culture
and Nộm maker has been an artist. The most popular Nộm dishes in Vietnam
include, but not limited to, Nộm bò khô (Mixed dry beef and papaya salad), Nộm
hoa chuối (Banana Flower salad), Nộm sứa (Jellyfish salad), Nộm ngó sen (Lotus
root salad), Nộm xoài (Green Mango salad). In this post, I will introduce some of them with easy-to-cook recipes for your references.
1. Banana Flower Salad
Banana
flower salad is a kind of rustic and exotic salad with main ingredients coming
from banana, a very familiar tree in country side of Vietnam.
Banana
flowers (thick purple lumps that will later turn into bunches of bananas) are
usually mixed with thinly sliced pork, beansprouts, onion, together with some
other spices such as sugar and vinegar. Banana flower salad is one of the
popular cold salad from Vietnam, it’s wild in apperance, juicy and crunchy in
texture and earthy in flavor.
Ingredients:
1
banana flower
8 oz
bean sprouts
½ cup
of cooked pork, matchstick
1/3 cup
of roasted peanut, chopped
3 tbsp
white vinegar
1 and ½
tsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tsp
sugar
2 ¼ tsp
salt
3 tbsp
dried shrimp
4 tbsp
rau ram (Vietnamese coriander), chopped
5 tbsp
lime juice
Processing:
Prepare
a large bowl of cold water. Add vinegar into the water. Set aside.
Use
a very sharp knife to discard stem at the bottom. Cut the banana flower into
very thinly slices. Put the sliced blossom into acidulated water for 15-30
minutes
Wash
and rinse the blossom under cold running water. Drain
Blanch
the bean sprouts in boiling water for 30 minutes and drain. Soak the dried
shrimp in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. Then drain and chop finely.
Use
a mortar and pestle to crush sesame seeds, sugar and salt. Transfer to a mixing
bowl.
Then add banana blossom, bean sprouts, pork, dried shrimp, peanuts and
rau ram. Toss all the ingredients well to combine. Then add lime juice. Toss
well and adjust the taste if needed salt, sugar or lime juice.
Plating:
Transfer to serving plate. Top with chopped coriander and ground peanuts, to
taste
2. Green Mango Salad
If you are a snack lover, this
crunchy, sour, spicy but buttery dish cannot be missed, especially when you
come to Vietnam, where you can enjoy the most genuine green mango and its
variant in daily salad.
To prepare for this, you need the
following ingredients:
1 green mango + 2 carrots
2 tbs granulated sugar
4 limes (or lemons), freshly
squeezed
2 cloves pickled garlic (or fresh
garlic), crushed and finely minced
30g dried shrimp, soak for 30
mins in water until soft
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon white pepper, freshly
cracked using a mortar and pestle
Sesame oil, vegetable oil
¼ cup Vietnamese mint, coarsely
chopped
1 tablespoon cilantro
To start, use a sharp knife, trim
the end of the mangoes. Peel the mangoes and cut into long, thin strips (or use
a vegetable peeler) until you reach the core of the fruit.
Place the carrots, green mangoes
in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with salt and granulated sugar. Drizzle with 1
tbs lime juice and toss well. Set aside for about 30 minutes. Salt draws out
moisture from the vegetables.
Stir dried shrimp with chopped
garlic + chili in a pan. Cook until golden then add fish sauce and sugar. Let
it cool down in room temperature.
Salad dressing: In a bowl, dissolve
the remaining sugar in 2 tbs of boiling water. Add the remaining lime juice and
soy sauce. Mix in the garlic and red chili pepper.
3. Lotus root salad
This
dish is comprised of crunchy pickled lotus
roots, which are an edible rhizome (root) of lotus plant. This crunchy, delicate flavored root grow in swampy underwater environment with white color, mild sweet, water-chestnut like flavor. While pickled carrots and daikon, tender pork and shrimp are among optional ingredients and fish sauce vinaigrette (mixed fish sauce), crispy fried shallot and roasted
peanuts cannot be omitted.
2 Lotus roots (If you can not find jar of pickled ones ready in groceries, use the fresh one, put the peeled lotus root in water with a little vinegar to prevent it from darkening)
3 cups of pickled carrots and
daikon (drained)
1 bunch of fresh coriander
1 bunch of mint (rau thom)
1/2 lb of pork shoulder
1/2 lb of shrimp
2 tablespoons of roasted peanuts
(coarsely ground)
2 tablespoons of fried shallots
(found at most asian groceries pre-fried)
About 1/2 cup of nuoc mam cham
(dipping fish sauce)
Boil the pork shoulder in water
and a little bit of salt and sugar. Boil the shrimp with the shell on in water.
Set aside the pork shoulder and shrimp and let it cool.
Rinse out the pickled lotus
roots. Cut the lotus roots in half, diagonally in bite size pieces.
Coarsely chop the fresh coriander and mints. Now with the pork and shrimp
cooled, slice the pork thinly. Peel the shrimp and slice the shrimp in half
lengthwise at the same time.
In a large bowl, mix together the
drained pickled carrots and daikon, lotus roots, mint, coriander, sliced pork,
and Vietnamese dipping sauce. Top the the salad with shrimp, roasted peanuts, and fried
shallot. Enjoy this simple, deliciously crunchy Vietnamese lotus root salad.
4. Water spinach salad
Another version of water spinach
that I’m going to introduce in this series of salad will provide you with an
amazing combination of boiled water spinach, beef and flavorful dressing. To be
honest, if you don’t want to get addicted to this dish, dare not to try it.
Preparation:
A bunch of water spinach
200gr beef slice
30ml fish sauce
30ml lime juice
Chopped garlic, chili, sugar
Herb, starfruit (sour type), mint
Processing:
Water spinach: Remove leaves of
the water spinach, let only 2 – 3 leaves at its top. Wash thoroughly with a
little salt to prevent it from darkening. Drain.
Boil the water, add some salt and
scald the water spinach in 1 minute. Take it out, soak in cold water to keep it
crunchy.
Beef: Scent beef slices with
salt, chopped garlic. Stir it fast with 1tbs of oil in high heat.
Dressing; 30ml fish sauce + 25ml
water + sugar + lime juice. Finish by chopped garlic and chili.
Drain the water
spinach. Cut star-fruit into thin slices, slightly crush them to get water for
pouring water spinach. Mix them well with the dressing. Add ground peanuts,
chili slices, chopped herbs) to plate.
5. Jellyfish salad
Lunar March is called jellyfish
season. Different from white jellyfish salad which may be available at supermarket, red jellyfish
requires more techniques and is more difficult to process. It is said that the
jellyfish from Hai Phong once caught is soaked in bark of one mangrove-like
tree to have red color and free from fishy odor. It will be then added lime
juice to make the dish aromatic and more charming to any taster.
In Hanoi, red jellyfish may be
found on street side under a century-old tree in a limited space with hanger
and several plastic stools. Each jellyfish serving includes pieces of jellyfish
cut by bamboo instead of knife as usual, together with grilled tofu, young
coconut, Cockscomb mint, perilla and indispensably shrimp paste.
You may feel astonished by a look
and first bite at first, but after having courage to try to second bite, you
will find it amazing and finish your dish so quickly you’re even unaware.
6. Papaya & Beef jerky salad
A popular street food for boys
and girls, but it also has its own history. As the old of Hanoi, Nom Bo Kho has
been in Hanoi for a long time, the ingredients are so simple. Many people love
its spicy taste of fried beef, pepper and the sour of lemon juice and crispy of
salad.
I also love this food, often come
with my friend to some vendor near the university or around Hoan Kiem lake. The
funny sound from the scissors what cut fibers of dried beef, good smell from
lemon. Hanoi is home to many famous beef jerky salad stalls, such as Nom bo kho stall on Hoan Kiem street, Godfather on Hong Phuc Street, Nom Lim on Hang Bun street, etc. What differentiates such stalls from one another is the owner’s way of beef jerky processing to create his own specialty.
1 papaya
1 carrot
100 gram dry beef
100 gram peanut
Coriander, marjoram
Vinegar, sugar, salt, fish sauce,
water
1 chili
Some cloves of garlic
Prepare: Remove stump and old
stalks of coriander and marjoram. Peel papaya and carrot, clean and slice them
into fibers, mix with 2 teaspoon of salt, then crush. It will keep papaya and
carrot crispy. Peel garlic, grind. Take chili into small shape. Shred dry beef.
Fry peanut until they are ripe.
Then peel them, grind into small-cube-shape.
Make sauce: Mix 3 teaspoons of
vinegar with chili, garlic, 2 tsps of sugar, 1 spoon of fish sauce and 1 spoon
of boiled water
Mix papaya, carrot, dry beef and
herbs with sauce. Sprinkle dish with peanut.
Tips:
Mix peanut well in the time you
enjoy, it will make peanut be crispy.
You can use kohlrabi instead of
papaya.
7. Carrot and daikon salad
Do
chua (Veggies pickles) from carrot and papaya is very popular in Vietnamese
cuisine thanks to its perfect accompaniment in flavor and freshness to broken rice, sizzling crepe,
banh mi sandwich, etc.
Peel
carrot and papaya, cut into thin strips or use a vegetable peeler. Combine
carrot, papaya strips and salt in one large bowl with some vinegar for 15
minutes. Drain them all. Dissolve sugar and vinegar in warm water following the
ration of 1 warm water: 1/2 sugar: 1 vinegar, pour it into the drain carrot and
papaya. Serve with chopped mint or coriander after 45-60 minutes.
0 nhận xét