Going Raw: Adventures in Uncooking

Thai Sprout Salad or, What To Make If You Do Not Have a Coconut for Your Thai Coconut Soup

This is my mom’s creation. She invented this salad after opening her coconut for Thai Coconut Soup and discovering that the coconut was bad. Horrors! Opening a bad coconut is like opening an overripe watermelon — it is so disappointing!

Luckily, it turned out for the best: using the remaining soup ingredients (plus a cucumber) she whipped together this killer salad.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups mung bean sprouts
3 spring onions
1 small cucumber
2 celery stalks
1/2 red bell pepper
a few stalks of cilantro
1/2 tsp peeled fresh ginger root
1 tbsp tamari
juice from 1 lemon
2 tsp agave nectar
2 tsp sesame seeds
dash of red chili flakes
salt to taste

Dice the green onions, cucumber, celery, and bell pepper, and combine in a big bowl. Add the remaining ingredients except for the sesame seeds. Mix well. When serving, sprinkle the sesame seeds on top of each plate to increase the prettiness factor.

This is a fun salad to eat since it’s so crunchy and has an airy, aromatic flavor. I am obviously used to eating raw salads for meals so this satisfies me easily, but if you are still getting adjusted to raw foods you can make it more immediately filling by adding half an avocado, or a handful of a more substantial sprout like buckwheat or lentil.*

*For an excellent source on how to grow your own sprouts, visit http://sproutpeople.org/sprouts.html.

I tell you what, life is good when missing an important ingredient leads to a delicious new recipe!