Side dishes
Crunchy Rainbow Thai salad
These Saucy Fish Co. Thai spiced fishcakes with red chilli and coconut centres pair so well with my crunchy rainbow
- Serves 4 -5 servings
- Prep 15 minutes
- Total 15 minutes
I am not sure how this happened. I am convinced that only days ago it was still summer and we had ages until school started. And look at us now… it is nearly Halloween for Pete’s sake and with Halloween comes something infinitely more scary!
I am talking about the half term holidays of course – this year Anya is in secondary school (i.e. high school) and she has two WHOLE WEEKS off. I am in denial ladies and gents. I barely have time to work on recipe testing, photography, videos, walk the dog, tidy the house and still make snacks (so many snacks) and dinner every day.
It’s bad enough during school term, but it becomes almost impossible during half term. I swear those kids say ‘I’m hungry’ roughly every 15 minutes. I cook from scratch almost every day, sometimes several times a day if I am testing recipes, but even food bloggers need the day off occasionally.
On those occasions, I am quite relieved to reach for good-quality ready-made meals and The Saucy Fish Co. products have been firm favourites, especially since Anya decided that salmon was her new favourite thing. I personally love their sauce-filled fishcakes (my favourite is smoked haddock and cheesy cheddar – yum!) which cook in about 30 minutes. I was very happy to be one of the first to try their new product: Thai spiced fishcakes with red chilli and coconut centres.
Thai food is right up there in terms of favourites and so I decided to create the perfect accompaniment to the fishcakes… meet my crunchy rainbow Thai salad! This is seriously tasty and absolutely PACKED with vegetables. We are talking carrots, spinach, peppers, mange tout, cucumber, avocado, tons of herbs and the most addictive Thai salad dressing. Take a look at the video to see how it’s done!
If you haven’t got the ingredients for the salad, feel free to substitute with other ingredients – you could use kale, courgettes, cabbage, onions… Anything with a bit of crunch will work really well. Leave out the fish sauce for a vegan/vegetarian version of this salad, but you might need to add a bit of salt, to taste, as the fish sauce is very salty. By the way, the kids have told me off because this salad doesn’t actually contain all the colours of the rainbow. My bad 😉
You can find the Thai spiced fishcakes at the frozen aisle of Sainsbury’s stores nationwide. But you can also order Saucy Fish Co. products from their own online shop. Visit The Saucy Fish Co on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to find out more about their products.
Recipe
Crunchy rainbow Thai salad
This crunchy rainbow salad is absolutely packed with vegetables and tossed with the most addictive Thai dressing. Feel free to substitute the ingredients with other seasonal favorites.
- Serves 4 -5 servings
- Prep 15 minutes
- Total 15 minutes
Ingredients
- For the dressing
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 1-2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
- 2 tsp dessicated coconut
- 1 tbsp palm sugar (or brown sugar)
- 2 tsp fish sauce (optional)
- ⅓ cup (80ml) rice wine vinegar
- ¼ cup (60ml) rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 2 large carrots (peeled and grated)
- 7 oz (200g) baby spinach (shredded)
- 1 red bell pepper (sliced into thin strips)
- 1 yellow or orange bell pepper (sliced into thin strips)
- 3 ½ oz (100g) mange tout (sliced into thin strips)
- ½ cucumber (seeds removed, sliced into thin strips)
- 2 tbsp fresh mint (finely chopped)
- 2 tbsp Thai basil (finely chopped)
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro, finely chopped)
- 1 avocado (sliced (or add more if preferred))
- large handful cashews or peanuts (roughly chopped)
- lime wedges (to serve)
Method
- 1
Pre-heat the oven and cook the Thai spiced fishcakes as per the pack instructions.Make the dressing. Place all the ingredients in a food processor or mini blender and blitz until smooth.
- 2
Add the carrots, spinach, peppers, mange tout, cucumber and chopped herbs to a large bowl.
- 3
Add the dressing and toss to combine.
- 4
Top with the avocado slices (you can also add them in with the other vegetables but they will get a bit mushy if tossed), and the chopped cashews.
- 5
Serve the fishcakes with the salad on the side and enjoy!
Notes
Leave out the fish sauce for a vegan version of this salad. Replace the fish sauce with equal amounts lime juice. You might need to add some salt, to taste.
