It’s the middle of summer and the past few weeks have been HOT and muggy – definitely too hot to cook! So I found this great salad that we made last summer that earned a rare a 5 star rating. It uses fresh ingredients that are easy to find at my local Aldi store (for you cost conscious people like me out there). This recipe is Thai inspired and found on the Forks Over Knives website and was created by Jessica Nadel. It is super easy (takes 15 minutes) and serves 4 – 6 people. It is gluten free (depending on what you serve it over) and full of color and fresh crunchy flavor! Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Ingredients:

For Salad:

• 3 cups of fresh green beans or Asian long beans (I like to cut them into 1 – 2″ pieces before cooking)
• 2 slightly underripe mangos
• 1 cup cherry, grape or calamari tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro – trimmed (opt. – my husband hates cilantro so I left it off)
• 3 creen onions, sliced
• 1/4 peanuts, crushed
• Optional: Cooked rice (we used Simply Nature Seven Grains which warms up in 90 seconds in the microwave)

For Dressing:

• 

• 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1 Tbsp gluten-free tamari
• 1/2 tsp unrefined cane sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw)
• 1 fresh Thai Chili, minced (optional
• Optional: 1 Tbsp Pad Thai Sauce

Instructions:

1. Bring a 3 qt pan of water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook for up to 2 minutes, until bright green and tender-crisp. Drain, then plunge them into a bowl of ice water to halt the cooking process. Drain again. (Optional: trim the ends and slice the beans in half lengthwise). Place them in a large bowl and set aside.
2. See and peel the mango and slice into long, thin strips. Add Mano to the green beans, along with the tomatoes, cilantro, onion and peanuts.
3. Wish together the lim juice, Tamara, cane sugar, and chili in a small bowl. Pour over the salad, toss and serve. The salad can be made and dressed ahead of time and left to chill and marinate in the fridge for up to 3 hours.

Quick Tip: This salad can be served alone or on a bed of rice, quinoa or other grains. We used the Simply Nature Organic Seven Grains from Aldi which adds 8 grams of protein to this meal.