Mala Glass Noodle Salad with Steak, Smashed Cucumbers, and Egg Ribbons
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Chinese salads are not big bowls loaded with leafy greens like what you think of with Western salads. They are more often cold appetizers featuring just one marinated crunchy veggie. (Btw, “Chinese chicken salad” is not really a Chinese salad, it’s Chinese-American!) Smashed cucumber salad may be the most iconic example of these crunchy veggie cold dishes that we have instead of salads. It can sometimes be found with mala chili oil and other times without, but either way, it is incredibly refreshing for summer. I wanted to take this classic salad and turn it into a full meal that would be perfect for a hot summer evening (even though it is cold and gloomy in SF), and this is what I came up with!
This salad has:
smashed cucumbers, marinated in the classic rice vinegar based dressing with lots of zingy garlic
glass noodles for a satisfyingly bouncy texture
egg ribbons for airiness and savoriness
Chinese five spice-rubbed steak
cilantro and radish microgreens for freshness and herbaceousness
toasted sesame seeds for the finishing touch
mala chili oil for that numbing spicy heat that I am obsessed with!
Not a boring salad by any means! Click here to get the recipe on the Pete and Gerry’s site!
Thank you so much to Pete and Gerry’s for sponsoring this recipe!