Peanut Butter Boy & Tangled Thai Salad

About a year and a half ago, Peanut Butter Boy (aka: Nick) contacted us about trying out some peanut butter samples for a line of PB that he was developing.  Nick started out as a food blogger who blogged about peanut butter recipes.  With all of his experience cooking and baking with peanut butter, Nick began to focus more on the quality of the peanut butter he was using.  In his search for the perfect peanut butter, Nick decided to take matters into his own hands and developed his own line of peanut butter.  

For now, Peanut Butter Boy has two peanut butters to choose from: Super Smooth and Crunch Power. Both peanut butters include only three ingredients: roasted peanuts, palm oil and sea salt. 

Since the peanut butter uses no fillers and is vegan-friendly, I knew I wanted to use it to make a vegan meal for friends we had invited for dinner.  I searched around for vegan salad dressings that include peanut butter and found this recipe for Fresh Restaurant's Tangled Thai Salad.  Even though the list of ingredients is long, I was drawn in by the pictures and a desire to try some ingredients that I don't normally use.  

Ingredients

Salad

• 1 cup chopped napa cabbage
• 1⁄3 cup jicama, cut into small sticks
• 2⁄3 cup peeled raw carrot, spiralized (or cut/peeled into julienne)
• 2⁄3 cup peeled raw yellow beets, spiralized (or cut into julienne)
• 4 tbsp Peanut Lime Dressing (recipe follows)
• 3 slices cucumber, halved (or cut into julienne)
• 2 tsp chopped raw peanuts
• 2 tbsp Fresh Salad Topper (recipe follows)
• 1⁄4 lime
• Cilantro to taste

Peanut Lime Dressing

• 1 tbsp ginger, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3⁄4 tsp sambal oelek (a South Asian chili sauce)
• 2 tbsp cilantro, densely packed
• 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
• 2 tbsp plus 2 tsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp plus 1⁄2 tsp tamari (a type of soy sauce)
• 1-1⁄2 tsp organic sugar
• 2 tsp coconut milk
• 3⁄4 tsp sesame oil
• 1⁄2 cup sunflower oil (or extra virgin olive oil)

Fresh Salad Topper

• 1 cup puffed quinoa (optional)
• 1⁄4 cup goji berries
• 1⁄4 cup currants (optional)
• 2 tbsp sliced almonds
• 2 tbsp hazelnuts, chopped
• 2 tbsp pistachios, chopped
• 1⁄4 tsp sea salt

Panko Crusted Tofu

• ½ block of tofu (about 225 g)
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• ¼ cup Japanese panko breadcrumbs
• 3 tbsp coconut or peanut oil

Instructions

Peanut Lime Dressing

1. In a blender, purée all but sunflower oil. With blender running, add oil in a thin stream.
2. Makes 1 cup, enough for 4 salads

Here is the dressing with just some of the ingredients.  I made a double recipe of the dressing.

Fresh Salad Topper

1. Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix.
2. Makes approx. 1-3/4 cups; refridgerate unused portion

Panko Crusted Tofu

1. Slice tofu into 1 inch rectangles or triangles.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
3. Place cornstarch and breadcrumbs in two separate small bowls. Coat tofu pieces with cornstarch, and then press breadcrumbs into them.
4. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Pat dry with paper towels and set aside.

Salad

1. Put cabbage into a large bowl and top with jicama. Pile the carrot and beet strands on top and drizzle with Peanut Lime Dressing.

 

2. Garnish with cucumber, peanuts, Fresh Salad Topper, lime and cilantro.

Verdict: 

The salad was delicious!  The dressing really makes it.  I wish I knew how to mix ingredients to create a blend like this without a recipe.  I need to do more experimenting.  The peanut butter was just one of many ingredients.  I  have also tried some on a spoon and loved the flavour.  But, I'll need to continue to try the peanut butter in other recipes!  

There were some bumps in the process of making the salad.  For one, it took quite a while to put together -- between getting the ingredients (I never did find jicama, so I substituted Asian pear) and all of the chopping.  Yet another reminder that I need to be more prepared.  Sometimes I over-estimate how productive I can be with a baby in tow.  Thankfully, E was happy to hang out on my back while I made dinner.  Yay for babywearing!

Another challenge was trying to puff quinoa.  I Googled what this meant.  But, really had no idea what I was doing.  I tried to keep shaking the pot, so as to avoid burnt quinoa.  But, I still ended up burning it.  Below is my dutch oven, sitting on my balcony to avoid the burnt smell from circulating in the house.