Tag Archives: healthy salad

  • Thai Beef Salad

    I’m feeling good. A new yoga studio has opened up two minutes from my house and I am loving downward dogging it regularly again. I’ve been swimming at least every other day and on Wednesdays I practise Pilates with a friendly group of mums while our sons have soccer coaching next to us. I’m even getting to bed before midnight some nights.

    Regular readers will know that I’m not usually a huge fan of exercising. My last gym visit ended up being my one and only gym visit for the year so this sudden emphasis on exercise is highly unusual for me. But I was tired of feeling tired and grumpy. Sure, I had good reason to be feeling low for a while — going through a divorce with kids is never fun no matter how amicable it is — but it’s time to move on and that means re-prioritising.

    For the past 18 months my focus has been on my kids and my work, as it needed to be. But now it’s time to focus a little on myself, too, because I’ve realised that if I’m not feeling strong, happy and healthy, then we’re all in trouble.

    DSC_1313

    So I’m making exercise a priority. I’m trying hard to go to bed at a reasonable hour a few nights a week. And I’m accepting invitations instead of turning them down.

    I’m eating healthy, too. When I’m stressed I tend to reach for junk food but now I’m eating lots of salads, lots of protein, and lots of vegetables. This salad — Thai Beef Salad — is one of my ultimate healthy Summer meals, combining my loves of a good steak, salad and Thai flavours. Serve it alone as a light meal or with a tofu or seafood tom yum soup, a green curry and steamed rice for a more substantial Thai-themed meal.

    Enjoy!

    Christina xx

    DSC_1325-2

    Thai Beef Salad

    INGREDIENTS

    • 1 bunch coriander, washed and separated into roots and leaves
    • 3 cloves garlic
    • 1 inch fresh ginger (or 1 generous teaspoon minced ginger)
    • 3 chillies (e.g. Birds Eyes chillies)
    • 4 tablespoons brown sugar
    • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
    • Juice of 1/2 lime or 1 generous tablespoon lime juice
    • 500 grams top quality porterhouse steak, trimmed and cut into slices.
    • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
    • 100 grams mixed lettuce leaves
    • 1 bunch mint
    • 1 red (Spanish) onion
    • 2 Lebanese cucumbers, seeds removed and sliced
    • 1 punnet cherry tomatoes

    METHOD

    1. Use a blender to chop coriander roots, garlic, ginger, chillies, sugar, fish sauce and lime juice until well combined.
    2. Reserve half of this mixture to use as dressing and use the other half to marinade the beef strips for 30 minutes.
    3. After 30 minutes heat up a large fry pan and add one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Fry the beef strips for a few minutes and then turn off the heat just before the meat is done to your liking – I like mine medium. Remove the pan from the heat and let the beef cool in the pan. Reserve the pan juices.
    4. Arrange the reserved coriander leaves, lettuce leaves, mint, cucumber, onion, tomatoes and beef on a large platter.
    5. Mix the pan juices into the dressing and then spoon the dressing over the salad and mix well.

    NOTES

    1. Gluten, nut and dairy-free.
    2. Serves 2-3 as main, 4-6 as a side dish and 8-10 as part of a banquet.

    More Easy Summer Recipes

    Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

    Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

  • Fiery Vietnamese Chicken Salad

    After paying homage to the Vietnamese pork roll in my last post about Mini Vietnamese Pork Buns, it’s now time to honour the simple and delicious Vietnamese Chicken Salad (Goi Ga).

    Vietnamese salads always taste so amazing, and they’re so healthy and low-fat, too. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you burn more calories eating this dish than are actually in the dish. This is even more so if you cut the cabbage too big like I did as your jaw will get a real good work out. (Hot tip: grate the cabbage with a vegetable peeler).

    This Vietnamese Chicken Salad would serve two as a light lunch or four as a side dish. If I was making this for dinner I would add steamed rice and one extra dish for two people (add one extra dish per additional guest). Ideally, I’d sweet-talk Mr Hungry Australian into cooking Vietnamese Beef in Betel Leaves (Bo Nuong La Lot) and Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio), two dishes he learned to cook with with Meera Freeman (author of The Flavours of Vietnam) many moons ago in Melbourne.

    This post, my last post for 2011, has been written for the final Delicious Vietnam, a monthly event celebrating Vietnamese food created by A Food Lover’s Journey and Ravenous Couple. Thanks Anh – I’m glad I made the last one!

    Continue reading