spinach salad with smoked salmon and walnuts
chickpea-avocado salad with spicy sesame sauce
papaya, grapefruit, and avocado salad
wild rice with cranberries and pine nuts
couscous-fennel salad with oranges and almonds
black tea–crusted tofu and shrimp with baby greens
beef, orange, and spinach salad
While salads of fresh, raw vegetables are common in Western cooking, I rarely had them when growing up.
Asians prefer to cook their greens, in part because tap water in many parts of Asia is contaminated, and produce can come from unclean sources. During my childhood, vegetables were sold in mud-covered piles in the street markets. It was a tremendous ordeal to clean them every day.
When I arrived in the United States, I was delightfully surprised to find I could drink water straight from the tap, and when I found I could buy prewashed vegetables, I was ecstatic! By merging the traditional Eastern flavors with Western ideas, I developed these recipes that are quick, adventurous, unusual, and nutritious. Many ingredients used in these salads are easy to come by, yet each contributes its own special flavor or texture—be it spicy, sweet, tangy, juicy, crunchy, or chewy.
By pairing cooling vegetables with warming spices, meats, and nuts, you can quickly produce a well-balanced meal with delicious tastes and therapeutic effects. With combinations of vegetables, whole grains, and a variety of meat, tofu, seafood, or nuts, you have ample antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and protein.
To help beat summer’s heat, try cooling salads such as Snow Pea and Crabmeat Salad, Papaya, Grapefruit, and Avocado Salad, or Three-Melon Salad. What could be a better way to enjoy the fresh produce from your garden or the farmers’ market? These dishes also nicely complement any meal cooked on the grill.
The hearty, colorful, warm yang salads, such as Couscous-Fennel Salad with Oranges and Almonds, Smoked Salmon Pasta Salad with Grapefruit Dressing, and Black Tea–Crusted Tofu and Shrimp with Baby Greens, incorporate authentic Asian flavors with popular Western ingredients. These exotic creations will lighten your winter table, and delight your eyes and taste buds.
The combinations of vegetables, grains, and lean proteins—tofu, nuts, and seafood—are endless. They make healthful, well-balanced meals always within reach.
According to TCM, both snow peas and crabmeat are sweet and cooling in nature. Together they stimulate the sense of taste, relieve fatigue, and help heal heat rash. Because of its cooling effects, this salad complements almost any type of food cooked on the outdoor grill. Use fresh, tender snow peas.
Makes 4 servings
1. Combine the crabmeat, chile, green onion, lemon juice, soy sauce, and rice wine in a bowl and set aside.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the snow peas and blanch them until they turn bright green, about 1 minute. Drain and rinse under cold water until chilled.
3. Toss the snow peas with the crabmeat mixture in the bowl. Top with the nuts and serve.
This is one of my medicinal dishes. It contains ingredients that my Chinese doctor mother used to encourage me to consume. Spinach and tomato lubricate aerobic dryness, while walnuts and salmon sharpen the mind and replenish the chi. Enjoy this delicious salad while knowing it is also so good for you.
Makes 4 servings
1. In a large salad bowl, toss together the spinach, tomatoes, blueberries, smoked salmon, oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.
2. Top with the walnuts and serve.
I had my first avocado after I came to the United States in my early twenties. It reminded me of tofu’s mild versatility. After learning its health benefits, I started to incorporate it into my cooking and was pleasantly surprised by how well it pairs with the spicy Asian dressing in this salad.
Whenever I come home from a long trip, I make this salad to give my body a healthy boost. Avocado contains heart-healthy fat and is high in fiber, potassium, and vitamins C, K, folate, and B6. Chickpeas are a great source of protein. For a hearty meal, serve the salad with whole-grain bread.
Makes 4 servings
1. Place the chickpeas in a salad bowl. Add the onion, bell pepper, and olives. Arrange the avocados on top.
2. Divide the salad equally among four plates. Spoon the sauce over the salad and garnish with the mint just before serving.
Throughout Southeast Asia, many dishes use banana leaves as plates, making for a striking, vibrant presentation. Since banana leaves can be hard to come by in the United States, I often substitute lettuce leaves.
Serve this cooling salad as a late-spring starter or side dish. To make it a main course, add smoked salmon, sautéed shrimp, or grilled flavored tofu. The sweet papaya and tart grapefruit meld with the creamy avocado to make a wonderfully complementary combination.
Makes 6 servings
1. To prepare the salad: Arrange the grapefruit segments, avocados, and papaya attractively on a large serving platter lined with the banana leaves.
2. To make the dressing: Whisk together the oil and vinegar in a small bowl. Season to taste with pepper. Mix the reserved grapefruit juice into the dressing.
3. Drizzle the dressing over the salad. Garnish with the capers and serve.
Every time I see a mango, I feel a sense of amused nostalgia. During the Cultural Revolution, the communist leader Chairman Mao used it in his political campaigns. There was a picture hanging in our classroom that showed him giving a golden mango in a glass case to a group of workers.
Wuhan, the city where I grew up, is in central inland China, so I never touched a real mango until I came to the United States. You could say that mangoes have a special place in my memory. I love their aromatic smell and sweet taste and have incorporated them into many of my recipes, like this one.
Makes 4 servings
1. Mix the shrimp and sauce together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes or overnight.
2. Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add the shrimp and stir-fry until they turn opaque, about 3 minutes. Add the peas and green onions and stir-fry until the peas turn bright green and the green onions begin to soften, about 1 minute.
3. Divide the salad greens among four large plates, placing them to one side of each plate. Arrange the mango slices in a fan shape opposite the salad greens on the plates. Spoon the shrimp mixture onto the salad leaves, top with the nuts, and serve.
As a little girl I loved following my grandmother to the night market on hot summer evenings to pick out melons. I would follow her lead, smelling and thumping the melons with my little fingers even though I didn’t know what I was doing.
Later I learned that selecting a perfect melon doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Let your eyes and nose guide you. The most fragrant ones tend to be the ripest. Choose melons that feel heavy, with no cracks or soft spots. Small, heavy melons usually have more flesh in proportion to the seeds.
This refreshing, cooling salad nicely accompanies grilled meat or seafood. For a lovely presentation, serve it in a large glass bowl.
Makes 6 servings
1. Place the melon balls into a bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, mix together the tea, honey, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then set aside to cool.
3. Just before serving, spoon the sauce over the melon balls, mix gently, and garnish with the mint.
In this dish, I added the Eastern elements of white tea and shiitake mushrooms to complement the traditional American flavors of wild rice and cranberries. The mushrooms bring a delicately savory flavor to the rice. Although I cook this dish year-round as a delicious side dish, it’s become a popular stuffing for poultry or pork tenderloin for my holiday parties. Its marriage of cranberries and pine nuts makes it a healthy alternative to ordinary bread stuffing. For your next holiday party, try this as a stuffing!
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1. Rinse the rice thoroughly with cold water. Place the rice, water, and tea bags in a 6-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove the tea bags and discard. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer, partially covered, until the rice has puffed and most of the liquid is absorbed, 55 to 60 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Heat a wok or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl the pan to coat. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the carrots, onion, and celery and stir-fry until the vegetables are tender, about 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the rice, orange juice, cranberries, and parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss to mix well.
4. Pour the rice mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until heated through and the liquid has evaporated, about 30 minutes. Garnish with the toasted pine nuts just before serving.
Tips: While the rice simmers, prepare the other ingredients. If using this dish as a stuffing, it can be made ahead. Pour the rice mixture into the baking pan, cover, and refrigerate. Bake just before serving.
Years ago, while I sailed down the Nile, I had a meal at a small restaurant. It was the first time I’d eaten couscous. Since then I’ve fallen in love with it. Couscous is easy and versatile to cook with, and it has found its way into many of my dishes.
In this dish I combine hearty couscous and chickpeas with fresh greens and dress them in a tangy, orange-soy dressing. It is a meal in itself, perfect for every season.
Makes 4 servings
1. In a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the orange juice to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Cover the saucepan immediately and remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
2. In a large salad bowl, combine the couscous, chickpeas, fennel, and green onion with the sauce and toss to coat. Stir in the orange pieces.
3. Divide the salad equally among four plates, garnish with the cranberries and almonds, and serve.
Napa cabbage is also called Chinese cabbage. This pale green and yellow oblong vegetable is beloved throughout Asia, and is low in calories and rich in antioxidants and fiber.
Chinese frequently stir-fry cabbage, but it wasn’t until I visited Thailand that I encountered Napa cabbage in a salad, paired with peanuts and chile peppers. I’ve modified the recipe by blanching the cabbage in tea, giving it a unique, aromatic flavor. The leftover broth makes a wonderful soup base.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1. Place the tea in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the cabbage and boil for 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly. Place the cabbage in a serving bowl.
2. Heat a wok or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl the pan to coat. Add the chile, garlic, and mushrooms and stir-fry until the mushroom strips are browned and crisp. Set aside.
3. In a large serving bowl, combine the sauce with the salad and toss well. Sprinkle with the fried mushroom mixture and nuts and serve.
This dish was inspired by my visit to a tea farm in southeast China. I ate dinner at the house of a farmer who served me homemade tofu, vegetables, and fruit from her garden. It was a simple yet memorable meal. The differences are she used river shrimp and stir-fried the vegetables. Here I use small salad shrimp and serve the tofu atop a fresh salad. In this dish, the smooth tofu absorbs the Spicy Sesame Sauce. The pears add a sweet note and the sesame seeds provide a bit of nutty crunch.
Makes 4 servings
1. Place the tofu on a flat surface and pat firmly with paper towels to remove as much water as possible. Cut the tofu horizontally into 2 large pieces, then cut those in half vertically, and then into quarters; you will have 8 equal cubes.
2. Heat a wok or large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat. Add the tea leaves, sesame seeds, and salt and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Lay the tofu slices on top of the tea leaf mixture and pan-fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Using a spatula, turn the tofu and pan-fry the other side until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Drain the tofu on paper towels. Cut into bite-size chunks.
4. Toss the salad greens, pears, tomatoes, and shrimp together in a large serving bowl. Arrange the tofu pieces over the salad and spoon the sauce on top. Sprinkle with the nuts and serve.
TCM believes that cooling spinach aids digestion. Warming garlic and ginger invigorate the taste buds. The combination has a harmonizing effect.
This is one of my go-to dishes on a busy weeknight. If you have some leftover grilled steak, you can put together this salad in less than ten minutes. Or, buy some thinly sliced organic roast beef at the deli counter.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1. In a large salad bowl, gently mix together the oranges, spinach, chives, garlic, ginger, oil, and rice vinegar.
2. Divide the salad among four to six serving plates. Top with the sliced steak and serve.
This salad was inspired by a papaya-chicken salad I ate at a beach resort in Southeast Asia. I wrote down the recipe on a napkin during the meal. I have modified the dish by adding pasta.
The seeds of small papayas, with their light, peppery flavor, are edible. They add a crunchy texture to dressings while also serving as a natural meat tenderizer. To save time, use organic chicken from the deli.
Makes 4 servings
1. To make the dressing: Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a jar, cover with a lid, and shake to blend. Store in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before using. The dressing will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days. Shake again before using.
2. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to prevent sticking.
3. To assemble the salad: Place the pasta and bell peppers in a serving bowl. Toss thoroughly with the dressing, then add the chicken, and toss again. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if needed. Divide the salad equally among four plates and serve.
A warming and hearty pasta salad with smoked salmon is brightened with a burst of citrus flavor. The complex carbohydrates and protein in this dish will provide you with long-lasting fuel for a busy day. The sweet-spicy dressing complements the distinguished smoked salmon, enlivening the mild pasta. If you have a busy week ahead, cook the pasta in advance. It can be refrigerated for up to three days. When you are ready to assemble the dish, simply rinse the pasta under warm water.
Makes 6 servings
1. To make the dressing: Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a jar, cover with a lid, and shake well to blend. Set aside.
2. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to prevent sticking. Transfer to a serving bowl.
3. To assemble the salad: Stir in the dried and fresh tomatoes and the salmon. Toss with the dressing, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide equally among six plates. Serve warm.
