凉拌大白菜 Napa Cabbage Salad

Here is a simple and delightful recipe I discovered on Youtube in preparation for this year’s Chinese New Year meals. Unbeknownst to me, many families include this salad as part of their New Year’s feasts to balance against the heavier meat dishes typically served.

Eating Napa cabbage 白菜 at this time of the year brings back childhood memories in Beijing where each family would stock up on a huge mound of 白菜, covered in thick blankets, to weather the lean winter months. I also remember standing in long lines in early morning hours to get the family’s allotment (usually 100=200 pounds). That was truly a sad time living in China where vegetable shelves in Beijing were bare during the entire winter with only Napa cabbages and turnips, and school cafeterias dished out stewed cabbage and vermicelli meal after meal.

This salad tastes bright and citrusy, thanks to two ingredients not commonly used in Chinese salad dishes: lemon juice and mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine). Nice to have it when you don’t have to eat it.

Ingredients:

• 400g of Napa cabbage (can be doubled with more dressing)

• 1/2 purple onion

• 1/2 each of red and yellow bell peppers

• 1/3 cup roasted peanuts

• Toasted sesame seeds

• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped

• Salad Dressing:

  • 60g soy sauce

  • 20g oyster sauce

  • 60g mirin

  • 30g sesame oil

  • 30g grape seed or canola oil

  • 100g freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 large lemon)

  • 2-3 cloves garlic, well smashed

  • 1 inch of ginger, finely chopped

Instructions:

• Julienne Napa cabbage leaves, length-wise. into match sticks

• Thinly slice purple onion and bell peppers

• Put everything in large salad bowel and sprinkle with chopped cilantro, toasted sesame seeds, and roasted peanuts

• Mix all dressing ingredients for dressing

• Mix in salad dressing just before serving, and enjoy!

Note: The salad dressing can easily be doubled and what you put in the salad is quite flexible. Anything crunchy will do. I have tinkered with the recipe and substituted half of the amount of sesame oil called for in the original recipe with other bland vegetable oils. Sesame oil can greatly enhance the flavor but a lot of it doesn’t make it any better.