Popular US Salad
My husband Simon always says that everything he wants in his life is either “illegal, immoral or fattening.”
I guess at this age, we are already past the stage of wanting anything immoral or illegal, but we are always in danger of falling into and surrendering to our desire for something fattening.
We all know that something fattening does not only ruin our shape, they can also cause us problems, because they usually contain ingredients that are not good for our health. At our age, there are so many “fattening” foods that we should take less or completely cut off from our diets!
We can enjoy these foods when we live in the Philippines, especially for some of us who have a good hand at cooking.
I came across a couple of Filipino recipes and I picked up this salad concoction because of its high nutrition and low-calorie content; very good for us retirees with various age-related ailments:
Kangkong and Mango Salad
The above recipe was taken from http://heartandhearth.blogspot.com/2008/07/steamed-kang-kong-water-spinach-with.html.
The kangkong is a vegetable which we have discussed earlier in my post about Philippine vegetables, and the mango is a fruit which we have also discussed in an earlier post about Philippine fruits. I thought it would be nice to start with a salad that we are somewhat “familiar” with the ingredients.
This Filipino salad is highly recommended for everyone, it is nutritious, easy to prepare and the ingredients are easy to find.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup diced ripe mangoes (NOTE: Do not use the variety of mango that has a reddish color and rounder shape; they do not have the same taste.)
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped coriander
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 -1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
1 bunch (around 300 gms) Kangkong, cleaned, cut into bite-size pieces, steamed
Preparation:
1. In a medium bowl, gently mix mangoes, tomatoes, and coriander.
2. In another bowl, combine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour over the mango salsa, stirring lightly.
3. Arrange the steamed Kangkong on the serving plate. Spoon mango salsa over the Kangkong and serve.
Chill the Kangkong with salsa for 10 minutes to make a cold salad. However, make sure to serve the salad within an hour of preparation otherwise the mangoes will absorb the vinegar and lose their sweetness.
Now doesn’t that seem like an easy salad dish? And tasty too, I bet! I swear this will be the first dish that I will make when we retire in the Philippines!
Here’s another vegetable salad variation –
Malungay (Moringa) Salad
This salad uses kangkong again, plus another vegatable we have already discussed in my past post, the malunggay or moringa. It seems that these two veggies are the most nutritious leafy veggies in the Philippines.
Ingredients –
- One cup of Malunggay leaves
- One cup of kangkong leaves
- Two medium tomatoes (sliced)
- One sliced cucumber
- One sliced small onion
- One singkamas, cut julienne
- A chopped Kinchay
Singkamas is a vegetable which we often see in local US stores, especially in Latino stores called jicama.
Kinchay is what we know as parsley.
The ingredients needed for the dressing are listed below:
- ¼ cup of sugar
- ¼ cup of vinegar
- 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
- ½ tablespoon of salt
- ¼ tablespoon ground black pepper
Fish Sauce is a salty fishy sauce, the nearest I can compare its taste with is anchovy. Hey, we use anchovy for our Ceasar salads, don’t we? These sauce come in long neck glass bottles and are available in most Asian stores. I think even the leafy green veggies can be found in the Asian stores, we just have to look for them! Go slow with the fish sauce if you have high blood pressure or uric acid level!
Preparation of the salad dish:
Start by steaming the Kangkong and malunggay leaves and let them cool down in the fridge after steaming them. Place all the vegetables into a large salad bowl and use your hands to mix them. Combine the vegetables with the steamed leaves and place the dressing over the combination. Finally, add the chopped kinchay and sliced egg on top before it is served.
The above information about the salad was courtesy of http://www.filipino-dishes.org/filipino-salads/ensaladang-pinoy-green-salad/. Thank you!
There you go, another healthy new dish to add to our list!
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