Thai Rice Salad Recipe

The sky's the limit with this recipe. Use whatever fruit, vegetables and even leftover meat that you might have, mix with cooked rice and pour over the fragrant dressing and you will have a wonderful meal. Simple and yet delicious.

Ingredients: (Serves 4-6)

350 g/12 oz/3 cups cooked rice
1 Asian pear, cored and diced
50 g/2 oz dried shrimp, chopped
1 avocado, peeled, stoned (pitted) and diced
½ medium cucumber, finely diced
2 lemon grass stalks, finely chopped
30 ml/2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
1 fresh green or red chili, seeded and finely sliced
115 g/4 oz/1 cup flaked (sliced) almonds, toasted
Small bunch fresh cilantro (coriander), chopped
Fresh Thai sweet basil leaves, to garnish

For the dressing:

300 ml/½ pint/1¼ cups water
10 ml/2 teaspoons shrimp paste
15 ml/1 tablespoon palm sugar or light muscovado (brown) sugar
2 kaffir lime leaves, torn into small pieces
½ lemon grass stalk, sliced

Method:

Make the dressing. Put the measured water in a small pan with the shrimp paste, sugar, kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass. Heat gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves, then bring to boiling point and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain into a bowl and set aside until cold.

Put the cooked rice in a large salad bowl and fluff up the grains with a fork. Add the Asian pear, dried shrimp, avocado, cucumber, lemon grass and sweet chili sauce. Mix well.

Add the diced chili, almonds and cilantro to the bowl and toss well. Garnish with Thai basil leaves and serve with the bowl of dressing to spoon over the top of individual portions.
[source from www.healthyonlinerecipes.com]