Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Sweet Ginger Soy Dressing

Kitchen Play List:  Maroon 5 ~ Hand All Over Album

I found this recipe when I was cruising Vegelicious.org. The photos of bright red and yellow peppers and sugar snap peas made my mouth water so I printed off the recipe and made it for lunch today. At the weekends I make a 'luxury' salad (Monday to Friday it's the standard large box of salad..) and I knew that both me and My Love would really enjoy this. 

The salad itself is easy to throw together...the minute cooking in boiling water of the sugar snaps isn't rocket science after all. But I do recommend draining them and tossing them straight into a bowl of ice water. 

Tossed salad ingredients

Probably the most tricky part to this salad is the first step of making the dressing. Heated sesame oil with ginger pulp isn't the easiest thing to not burn! But the two minutes pass quickly and the dressing comes together quite easily from there. 

Sweet Ginger Soy Dressing

The results were a very delicious salad. The veggies were crisp and the dressing had a great flavour. My only changes that I would make next time are that I would wait until serving before adding the mushroom slices because I have a 'thing' about slimy mushrooms and I would blitz the ginger to a paste instead of grating as I don't like 'stringy' ginger. But they are my issues and personal preferences. My Love doesn't agree and enjoyed it the way it was. 

I wouldn't change the ingredients at all. All the veggies were perfect together and the dressing had just the right amount of flavour....Oh I just remembered I did change two things...the recipe calls for 1 tbsp sugar...I used 1 dsp Agave Nectar instead and 1 tbsp vegan Oyster Sauce which is hard to find in England so I used Mushroom Ketchup instead! All in all a great salad.

Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Sweet Ginger Soy Dressing...Yum!

Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Sweet Ginger Soy Dressing
(Recipe reviewed on Vegelicious.org)

Salad:
1 large red pepper, trimmed and sliced
1 large yellow pepper, trimmed and sliced
1/2 lb sugar snap peas, trimmed
3 little carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
3 med mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander/cilantro
A sprinkle of sesame seeds

Dressing:
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced or blended
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/4 tsp red chilli flakes
1 tbsp oyster sauce (I used Mushroom Ketchup)  
1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or tamari for GF)
1 tbsp sugar (1 dsp Agave Nectar)
1/4 tsp salt


In a small pan bring some water to the boil and toss in the sugar snap and cook for 1 minute. Drain then straight away and 'shock' them in a bowl of iced water. When cold drain them thoroughly. 


In a large salad bowl, toss the peppers, mushrooms, carrots and sugar snap peas together. 


In a small saucepan gently heat the oil and then add the ginger and cook for 2 minutes (carefully as it will catch very easily),  add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar and salt. Stir constantly and bring the dressing to a simmer. Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl until needed. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss well. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve. Delish!