Spicy Green Salad
De Arbol (Capsicum Annuum) means tree like in Spanish. The plant has thick, upright, woody stems and the chile itself is narrow, curved and bright red in color. Believed to be closely related to the pequin, the De Arbol is thin fleshed, with tannic, smoky, grassy flavor and searing heat. This chile has a heat range of 7.5 on the heat scale of 1-10. De Arbol Chiles are comparable to a Cayenne Pepper. Scoville heat units 15,000 to 30,000.
Suggested Use:
De Arbol is a hot chile and a staple in Southwest kitchens. Add some heat to your next salsa or Mexican dish. Be adventurous and add them to your next stew or chili along with the other spices. Add some heat to your next salsa or Mexican dish.
Ingredients:
1 medium broccoli; cut into florets
50gm/ 1/2 cup snow peas
6 green asparagus; cut into half (remove the thicker bottom part and peel the outer skin lightly)
1 purple carrot; ribbons (no fancy equipment required; a peeler would do)
8 green beans
Mixed greens- a good handful
1 Lebanese cucumber; sliced diagonally
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves; chopped
1 tbsp spring onion (green part)
For the dressing:
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp sunflower/vegetable oil
2 spring onion (white part); finely chopped
2 garlic; finely chopped
2 dry chile; broken into bits (reduce quantity if you desire less heat)
½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp ginger; grated
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt; to season
Method:
Blanch the vegetables like broccoli, green beans, snow peas and asparagus. Remove into a bowl of ice cold water to keep it crunchy. After a few minutes, strain and keep aside.
Heat sunflower oil in a pan and lightly brown the garlic. Add the spring onions, dry chile, coriander powder and ginger. Remove from heat, cool and add sesame oil and lemon juice. Season with salt.
Place all the vegetables in a bowl and add the dressing just before serving; toss through with love and care.