Jicama Salad (vegan and probably gluten free)I am kicking around some ideas for posts about restaurants here in Topeka (where I am visiting my parents for the holidays), but I have to share this recipe with you first. I made it for the first time about two years ago. It is not an original, but I have made minor modifications. The original is here at What We're Eating, a lovely website. A small but notable swap is capers for anchovy paste, which makes the recipe vegan (and a bit cheaper to make). I apologize for the poor picture quality, the only camera I have with me is on my phone.
The most time consuming thing about making this is cutting up the jicama.
Ingredients:
The Business
1 jicama, the one I used was probably the size of a grapefruit and a half, and yielded about 2 cups of julienned goodness
1/3 red onion sliced thinly, or however much you'd like... don't go overboard or you'll overwhelm the rest of the ingredients
1 granny smith apple, shredded, don't substitute here because the tartness is important... so I guess substitute at your own risk
1/2 cup or so carrots, shredded
1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced, I sliced it down the middle and took out the innards then did small slices on each half
1/3 cup cilantro, or to taste
1/3 cup peanuts, ground
The Dressing
3 limes, juiced up
2 1/2 tablespoons chili garlic paste, if you don't keep this stuff on hand then you are making a big mistake. I basically put it in everything I make. Everything.
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
Roughly 10-15 capers, put through a garlic press
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, put through a garlic press, OR 1 teaspoon of dried ginger
black pepper to taste
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (the original calls for asian peanut oil, which I would absolutely use if I had any... note to self: get some)
Instructions:
Put the first set of ingredients in a bowl.
Put the second set of ingredients (sans oil) in a small bowl and whisk them together.
Slowly whisk the oil in with the rest of the dressing ingredients.
Pour the dressing over the rest of the stuff and toss it all together. I used tongs to do this. Beware, though, I pinched my palm with the tongs!
