Food & Drinks

Recipe: cashew crunch salad with sesame dressing

cashew crunch salad

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands of online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it, and what to cook. This time our chefs are serving you the recipe for the tastiest cashew salad.

Sometimes you have a recipe that suddenly appears in your life, is hard to shake off for weeks, and then just as suddenly disappears, only to make a comeback a few months (or years) later. This ‘cashew crunch salad’ is that. And man, am I glad it's back.

Ingredients

For the salad:

  • 0.5 white cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 0.5 red cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 150 g carrots, julienne cut
  • 15 g coriander
  • 3 spring onions
  • 200 g edamame
  • 100 g cashew nuts
  • optional: chicken, shrimp, tempeh, or another protein source

For the dressing:

  • generous splash of olive oil (other oil is also fine)
  • 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • optional: tablespoon of peanut butter or tahini

Of course, I have to thank myself for that, I know that too. And actually, this mega delicious and healthy recipe has a very clear rhythm: in spring and summer it is abundantly present, in autumn and winter it dives under. And that is also easy to explain: in spring and summer I simply crave lighter and cold food more than in the winter months (team always cold!).

Always different
Now I must confess that I have never followed the original recipe, but have always put my own spin on it. Sometimes out of stubbornness, usually from a practical point of view: using up leftovers or having certain ingredients in stock or not. The nice thing is that it doesn't matter at all with this salad.

Get creative
In the original recipe, white and red cabbage are used, but pointed cabbage, Chinese cabbage, or spinach also work perfectly. That freedom applies to all ingredients. If I have cucumber left over, I add cucumber. Bell pepper? Sure, throw it in. Radishes? Also tasty. You can add chicken as in the recipe, but I personally find tempeh tastier in it. You can also jazz up the dressing as you like. I often add a tablespoon of peanut butter or tahini to make it a bit richer. Okay, it's clear: get creative.

Here's how to make the cashew crunch salad (in principle):
1. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing until smooth.
2. Mix all the ingredients for the salad together.
3. Pour the dressing over it and you're done!

Image: A pinch of yum

Text: FavorFlav