Recipe: Thai inspired mango salad with ginger, chilli, sprouted seeds and cashew nuts.

The hot weather has had me craving something light and fresh. I always used to think that salads were boring until I realised they don't have to just consist of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, (not that there is anything wrong with the Holy Trinity of salad vegetables!). And putting fruit in my salads was only a fairly recent discovery after trying out Yotam Ottolenghi's Sweet Summer Salad, which I would highly recommend by the way.

Anyway back to the delicious case in point. As the title suggests this salad is inspired by Thai flavours. It's (not too) sweet, spicy, crunchy and sour all in one mouthful. It gets an antioxidant rich boost from the broccoli sprouts- did you know that sprouted broccoli seeds can contain between 10-100 times the amount of Sulforaphane than adult broccoli? This powerful antioxidant helps to support the chemical detoxification pathways in the liver which help to protect the body from disease, especially cancer. Ginger has, among other properties, the ability to help reduce inflammation when consumed regularly, which may be helpful for people with inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. It can also help to relieve nausea and vomiting.

This salad is delicious served with some spiced salmon fishcakes, recipe to come soon! To make a more substantial meal on it's own, stir in 100g rice noodles for 2 people, prepared as per pack instructions and mix with all of the dressing in step 4.

If nut free, the cashews can be replaced with toasted pumpkin seeds.

Serves 2

Ingredients

For the dressing:

1cm ginger

1-2 cloves of garlic

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp water

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp honey or maple syrup

Juice of 1 lime (approx 1 tbsp)

1 tsp soy sauce, tamari or coconut aminos

1/2 birds eye chilli (remove seeds if you like it less hot, keep them if you like it hotter!)

For the salad:

1 large carrot, spiralised, julienned or grated

1 courgette, spiralised, julienned or grated

1/2 a cucumber, seeds removed and grated or julienned

80g sugar snap peas

2 spring onions,

1 mango, chopped

30g sprouted seeds (I used broccoli, alfalfa, clover and radish sprout mix)

2 tbsp cashew nuts, dry toasted in a pan and roughly chopped

small handful of fresh coriander (optional)

Method

1 Combine the ingredients for the dressing in a blender or food processor until smooth.

2 Halve the sugar snap peas and finely slice the spring onions. Peel the mango then remove the flesh carefully from the stone and slice into matchsticks or small chunks.

3 Combine the peas and spring onions with the spiralised vegetables in a bowl. Pour over half of the dressing and gently mix so everything is coated.

4 Arrange servings on individual plates, top each with some mango and the sprouted seeds. Drizzle over the remaining dressing.

5 Sprinkle over the toasted cashews and chopped coriander if using.