Thai Vegetable Salad (Gluten Free & Vegan)

Name: Thai Vegetable Salad (Gluten Free & Vegan)
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 1 cup green beans, sliced; 1 cup carrots, grated or use carrot matchsticks; 1 cup purple cabbage, shredded; 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved; 2 tablespoons chopped nuts of your choice (optional); 3 cloves garlic; 1 Thai chili; 2 tablespoons coconut aminos; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon brown sugar

posted by Sharon Chen on Mar 21, 2017 (updated Aug 21, 2020) 14 comments »

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★★★★★ 1 reviews

Inspired by Thai papaya salad, this simple vegetable salad features an authentic Thai flavor with a gentle kick. It’s also made gluten free and vegan.

March has been a really fruitful month over here at DelishPlan so far.

I went to Chicago for the first time and did my first official cooking demos using Tatung Fusion Cookers at the annual International Housewares Trade Show this past weekend. My biggest takeaway is that serving small portions of food is very different than what I am used to. What I am used to, you know, usually involves just one pot or one bowl for 2 to 4 servings.

The challenge of small servings is not only about the numerous times you transfer food in small paper cups or on tiny paper plates but the presentation. Because food decoration is absolutely not the same with only one bite of food and you don’t have fancy plates or props to work with, it’s not that easy to present food in a way I would want to. That’s something I shall totally think ahead next time.

However, even without great presentation, the small servings did run out pretty fast at the show. Overall, the 2-day cooking demo was a great experience to me! I learned so much about how to do demos effectively. Any time there’s a challenge, you know there’s something to learn and improve on. 🙂

Before I left Austin for Chicago, it was in the middle of SXSW 2017 in Austin, the annual conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. I had the chance to participate in the first part of the festival – interactive media.

Little did I know I would end up doing a workshop with FeedFeed sharing some of my food photography tips with their Instagram followers. The feedback I received was surprisingly positive, which made my first SXSW a great one.

Since there’s no kitchen at the venue, I needed to prepare something that’s simple and quick to assemble on the spot. That’s when this Thai Vegetable Salad came into my mind. It’s very photogenic because of the colors. It only requires 4 vegetables which are carrots, green beans, purple cabbage and cherry tomatoes. It didn’t require cooking. All I needed to do was to pre-cut the vegetables and make the Thai salad dressing, then pack them up to go. The assembling was done during the workshop which took less than a minute.

And that’s how quick you can make this flavorful salad too. You might wonder what’s in the dressing. You will be using fresh garlic, lemon juice, a dash of sea salt, a little bit of brown sugar, 1-2 Thai chilis, and coconut aminos. The original papaya salad dressing from the Thai cuisine calls for either fish sauce or soy sauce. To make this salad vegan and gluten free, coconut aminos is a great substitute. That’s how I made a Mongolian beef recipe gluten free too.

Now, the only thing left is to pour the dressing over the vegetables and mix it up. If you like, sprinkle some chopped nuts on top for some extra crunchiness and healthiness. So what do you say? Shall we kick off spring with this yummy Thai Vegetable Salad?