This is a great salad. For two months out of the year we have a very hot house so we eat salads and everyone from Louisiana knows that spices can cool you down. I love this salad.

The Dressing

1/2 cup oil
3-4 Tbsp sweetener (brown sugar, honey, maple syrup or stevia)
2 Tbsp finely grated ginger
1/4 c plus tsp vinegar
A large squirt lime juice
3 Tbsp sriracha at least
1.5 tsp sesame oil
3 T soy sauce or tamari
salt to taste

The Salad

Lots of shredded red and white cabbage
Thinly chopped colored bell peppers
Cucumbers
Small crunchy strips of lettuce
Shredded carrots
Up to 1/3 total volume of a mix of chopped basil, cilantro and fresh mint
Sliced rings of banana peppers
Top with the sev (or crisp chow mein noodles), sliced almonds or salted peanuts.

Drizzle some of the chili crisp (recipe in another post, follow link) on top if you dare.

Now for the (optionaI) fun part. I found a beautiful little sev press to make the ultra thin chickpea flour pasta which, fried, sends so many Indian street food dishes into the stratosphere. It is suprisingly easy while at the same time making you feel oddly accomplished. Go figure. The mind is a tricky beast.

The sev press just looks like something out of a steampunk adventure novel, useful, arcane, portable and exciting. Recipes for sev dough abound but it’s a thick dough of chickpea flour with a not much salt, oil and water. 1/2 cup dough made plenty for two big salads. Pressed carefully into hot oil until crispy and brown. If this is a bit much, crispy chow mein noodles are similar.