It’s been a salad form of summer season thus far. Scorching days spent tenting with buddies, impromptu picnics within the park, afternoons watching the tennis, studying within the backyard with Check Match Particular on within the background. Food has needed to match round summer season life and, of all of the meals, this has been top-of-the-line. It has summer season etched into the center of it in that it’s recent, flavourful and good for feeding a crowd. It’s a (very) wild tackle Laotian crispy rice salad and is considerable with herbs, backyard greens and, crucially, there’s barely any “cooking” concerned in any respect.
Summer time crispy rice salad with tofu, lime and herbs
If you wish to get forward, prepare dinner the rice earlier and even the day earlier than, and refrigerate. Not all vegan fish sauces are equal: Thai Style makes a good one.
Prep 15 min
Prepare dinner 1 hr
Serves 4, or 6 as a facet
350g jasmine rice, or 1kg leftover cooked rice
5 tbsp rapeseed oil
280g extra-firm tofu, drained
2-3 crimson chook’s eye chillies, to style, stalks discarded, flesh finely sliced
7½ tbsp vegan fish sauce
7½ tbsp lime juice (from 4-5 limes)
1½ tbsp gentle muscovado sugar
1 giant cucumber (300g), halved lengthways, seeds scooped out and flesh lower into julienne strips
3 spherical shallots, peeled, halved and lower into very skinny half-moons
300g cherry tomatoes, halved
40g coriander, roughly chopped
40g mint, leaves picked
50g roasted salted peanuts, chopped
If you happen to’re cooking the rice from scratch, put it in a sieve and rinse underneath the chilly faucet till the water runs clear. Tip the rice right into a pan, add 600ml just-boiled water and produce again to a boil. Cowl, flip down the warmth to a whisper and depart to prepare dinner for 10 minutes. Flip off the warmth and depart the rice to steam, nonetheless with the lid on, for an additional 5 minutes. Unfold the rice in your largest oven tray and depart to chill utterly.
Warmth the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/fuel 7. Stir three tablespoons of oil by the cooled rice, then bake, turning sometimes, for 45 minutes, till golden and crisp on the edges.
Put the drained tofu on a board and crumble it along with your fingers (or use the again of a knife to interrupt it up). Tip on to a second oven tray, drizzle over the remaining two tablespoons of oil and bake for the final 20 minutes of the rice cooking time.
Take out the rice and tofu trays and depart to chill barely. In a bowl, whisk the chilli, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar till the sugar dissolves.
In a big bowl, mix the cucumber, shallot, tomatoes, herbs, tofu and peanuts, add the crisp rice, then pour the dressing excessive. Toss gently to coat every thing evenly, then serve.