Bok Choy Salad with Peanut Vinaigrette
Bok Choy Salad with Peanut Vinaigrette (image T. Freuman)
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I completely overdid it this past Thanksgiving weekend.
I’m in serious reining it in mode, and have committed to low carb, vegetably dinners for this coming week– salads and vegetable soups. Which means I’ve made a big batch of the only salad I could possibly stand to eat for a week straight: the crunchiest, most flavorful, packed-full-of-goodies salad I know. In case you haven’t met it yet, allow me to introduce you to this surprising Bok Choy Salad with Peanut Vinaigrette.
My mom once got the recipe from her friend, and we’ve been making it for years. Over time, we’ve modified the dressing recipe to be waaaaay less sugary, and the salad is no worse for the wear. This salad is a less common way to use bok choy, a most nutritious cruciferous vegetable that’s more likely to be stir fried or sauteed than it is to be eaten raw. Which is odd, since raw bok choy beats most lettuces for crunch, but isn’t excessively tough and fibrous like raw kale and cabbage often are. You can also use this vegetable salad as a base for proteins to add a bit more substance; some sauteed shrimp or chicken would be lovely, as would soy-marinated sliced steak or Asian- flavored baked tofu or tempeh.
Folks whose digestive systems disagree with the other cruciferous family veggies– like broccoli, brussels, kale and cabbage– may find that bok choy is the distant relative who they can tolerate.
Bok Choy Salad with Peanut Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
- 2 bunches bok choy (or 4 bunches baby bok choy), chopped
- 4 scallions (greens only for low FODMAP), thinly sliced
- Dried cranberries (amount to taste; a 5oz package is not unreasonable)
- Sunflower seeds (amount to taste)
- Toasted slivered almonds or sliced almonds (amount to taste)
Toss together all of the salad ingredients.
Peanut Vinaigrette:
To make the vinaigrette, whisk together the following ingredients very well until uniform consistency. Leftover dressing can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge, and brought to room temperature again for future use.
- 1/2 cup olive oil (replace half with garlic-infused olive oil if making this low FODMAP)
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 TBSP soy sauce (can use gluten free Tamari soy sauce to make this gluten-free)
- 2 TBSP crushed garlic (omit this ingredient if making low FODMAP)
- 2 TBSP smooth peanut butter
- dash of salt and pepper to taste