Asian Snow Pea Salad with Radishes and Edamame

Lately I've been on quite a kick with the radishes, and yesterday when I was pondering what to make for Sweetnicks ARF/5-A-Day, the weekly event where she encourages us to eat more veggies, fruits, and anti-oxidant rich foods, I noticed that I had a few radishes left in the fridge, and started thinking of what would be a creative way to use them. I also had one of those big bags of snow peas and some frozen edamame, both from Costco, and after looking at a few recipes online and checking a cookbook or two, this recipe is what I came up with.

The main inspiration for the dressing here was Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka, a cookbook I've been impressed with but haven't had time to explore too deeply yet. It's a big book, and seems to have some good combinations of flavors for vegetable dishes and ideas for cooking lesser known veggies.

I loved the taste of this. I made way too much dressing so I used the extra to brush on a piece of salmon, which I then grilled. The salmon was probably worthy of being a recipe post in itself. Since salmon is a healthy choice, all in all, this was a very delicious and nutritious dinner.

Asian Snow Pea Salad with Radishes and Edamame
(4-6 servings, original recipe by Kalyn, with inspiration for the dressing from Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka)

1 1/2 cups red radishes, trimmed, washed, and cut in fourths lengthwise, or smaller if the radishes are big
3 cups snow peas, trimmed, cut into diagonal pieces about 1 1/2 inches long
1/2 cup cooked, shelled edamame
2 T sliced green onions (scallions)
1/4 cup chopped peanuts for garnish

Dressing:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 T rice vinegar (not seasoned)
2 tsp. Splenda (or use sugar)
1/2 tsp. green Tabasco sauce or hot chili oil (or more to taste)
1 T sesame oil
2 T peanut oil
1/2 tsp. ground ginger (comes in a jar)
2 T sugar free or low sugar apricot jam

Mix dressing ingredients in glass measuring cup or small glass bowl, wisking well. Put dressing in microwave and heat 1-2 minutes, until warm but not starting to boil.

Combine vegetables in bowl with tight fitting lid. Pour over about 1/2 of dressing, put lid on bowl, and turn over a few times until all vegetables are coated with dressing. Chill half hour in refrigerator, saving reserved dressing.

Remove salad from refrigerator and stir in 1 T more dressing if it seems like it has been mostly absorbed. (You will not use all the dressing.) To serve, put salad in serving bowl and sprinkle peanuts over.

There are lots of ways you could use the extra dressing left over from this salad. Some possibilities that came quickly to mind include usin git as a marinade for chicken, pork chops, or fish, as a dressing on fresh spinach, or as a dressing for a cold rice salad. If anyone thinks of a creative way to use it, leave a comment to let me know what you'd do with it.

This salad and the grilled salmon I ate with it would make a perfect phase one dinner for The South Beach Diet. For phase two, you could add something like Barley with Dried and Fresh Mushrooms or Brown and Wild Rice with Pine Nuts and Thyme.

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