Thai Salad

Wanting a light dinner which will make a great lunch the next day? This salad was inspired by a craving from a stand at the Ithaca Farmer's Market.  There is an awesome noodle stand there, and well, we felt like eating that tonight but couldn't drive the 3 hours it would take to get it! This whole dish (including if you were to make the grilled shrimp) will take no more than 30 minutes to make and assemble.
Cabbage is a member of the cruciferous family and is jam packed with Vitamin K and C.  It has amazing properties for healing. It's properties aide in digestive health, decreases cholesterol, is an anti-oxidant & anti-inflammatory, and has been shown to prevent forms of cancer.
Source: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=19 .

Makes 6 servings        Prep Time: 15 minutes       Cook Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
Salad:

• 6 cups of chopped or shredded Nappa cabbage (Bok Choy or other cabbages would work well too-this is about 3/4 of a head)
  
• 2 cups of shredded carrots
• 1 cup minced celery
• 1/2 cup of chopped scallions
• *2/3 package of buckwheat noodles (2 bundles) cooked and rinsed with cold water
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• Bean sprouts
  
  

*Note: If needing gluten free, make sure buckwheat noodles are 100% buckwheat. Often buckwheat noodles have wheat flour in them as well.  If you can't find them-use brown rice noodles)

Dressing (keeps for weeks, and you'll have a bunch left over):

• 6 tbsp organic peanut butter (we used crunchy)
• 3/4 c boiling water
• 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar (if you don't have this, cider vinegar would be fine but not balsamic)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1/2 tbsp fresh chopped ginger
• 1 lime-about 2-3 tbsp juice
• *optional-for added spice: add in 1-2 tsp Siracha/Asian chili sauce

Instructions:

1. Cook noodles and drain, toss with sesame oil and let cool
2. Mix rest of salad ingredients in a bowl (don't add noodles)
3. Place peanut butter into a bowl, add in boiling water, stir until combined
4. Add remaining dressing ingredients
5. Pour desired amount of dressing onto the noodles and toss, reserving the majority for salad

Assembly:

1. Place lettuce in bowls, and mix in desired amount of noodles
2. Pour desired amount of dressing on and toss (we didn't use much)
   
3. Top with bean sprouts, protein of your choice (we used grilled shrimp, tofu would be good too!), and more Siracha (for the heat lovers)
   
   
   
   

Nutritional Benefits:

• High in Protein (if using shrimp)
• Low in Fat (entire dressing has 48g-making it no more than 5 g per serving-that's assuming you use a lot of dressing)
• Vitamin A: carrots; bone, tooth, and eye health
• Vitamin K: cabbage 66.5% of daily needs in 1 cup: needed for bone & tooth health, aides in proper clotting of blood, prevents cardiovascular disease & diabetes
• Garlic: anti-inflammatory (reduced inflammation), heart health (lowers cholesterol/blood pressure/triglycerides), anti-microbial, anti-oxidant
• Ginger: anti-inflammatory, aides in digestion, anti-tumor growth, anti-oxidant
• Vitamin C (immune health): from cabbage (43% in of daily needs in 1 cup) and limes
• *Vegan & gluten free (if not topping with shrimp and using gf noodles)