Chicken Satay Chopped Salad

With Thai Butternut Soup simmering on the stove top, and the smell of curry, lime, and thai basil filling our house, we wanted to find a salad to compliment the soup.  After looking through many recipes online, but not finding anything quite right, we decided to concoct our own, using elements of recipes we'd seen.  Below, is what we came up with, a salad with a skewer of chicken satay, and a sesame lime dressing.  This could definitely be a meal on it's own, but, combined with the butternut soup, made a fantastic soup and salad dinner combo.

Ingredients

Chicken Satay
1/2 can of coconut milk
zest from 1 lime
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sweet thai chili sauce
1 pound chicken breasts, cut into one inch pieces
wooden skewers 

Salad
2 cups organic baby mixed field greens
1 cup chopped cabbage (purple is great for color)
1/2 small red onion finely sliced
2 carrots chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cucumbers, chopped
3-4 tablespoons of fresh chopped thai herbs - we used thai basil and cilantro
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped/crushed

Dressing
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 inch piece of ginger, grated
1/2 clove of garlic, minced
Sriracha or red paper flakes to taste (optional)

Directions:
Make marinade for the chicken satay (coconut milk, lime zest, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and sweet thai chili).  Mix well.  Add chicken pieces and marinate for at least 30 minutes, 1-2 hours if possible.  Place marinated chicken pieces on wooden skewers and grill until cooked through.  Be sure to oil your grill grates and watch chicken carefully, as it has a tendency to stick.

Combine ingredients for the dressing in a small food processor.

Mix the cabbage and field greens together to form the base of the salad.  For beautiful presentation,  arrange the colorful chopped vegetables in sections around the salad.  Add peanuts and fresh herbs.  Put the skewers of chicken satay on top.

Serve with dressing, extra peanuts, lime wedges and cilantro.  Or like us, serve a small salad with the bowl of thai butternut soup!

Thai Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato, Carrot Soup

Fall is, by far, our favorite time of the year - cool weather, nights by the fire pit, apple cider, and the beginning of fall/winter comfort food.  Butternut squash soup has always been a fall favorite of mine, and when Mr. S brought home some butternut squash from a local farm, I knew I had to make some.  As much as I love traditional butternut soup with cinnamon and nutmeg, we wanted to try something new!  A long time ago, I came across a recipe for Thai Butternut Soup on Pinterest, and have been waiting for butternut season to give it a whirl.  I'm not sure what we were expecting, exactly, but we couldn't get over how delicious this recipe turned out.  Not only was it super flavorful, it was healthy, filling, and beautiful! 

Thai Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato, Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil (can use coconut or canola)
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 1/4 cup Thai Kitchen red curry paste (more at the end to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 6-7 cups uncooked butternut squash, peeled, cut into 1”cubes, seeds separated
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled, cut into 1”cubes
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (14 oz.) can Thai Kitchen coconut milk (we used light)
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped Thai basic
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• Sriracha/Asian hot chili sauce to taste (optional)
  
  Honey Sriracha Butternut Squash Seeds
• Reserved butternut squash seeds
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha/Asian hot chili sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon McCormick ground cumin
  
  Garnish
• Freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped (optional)
• Sriacha hot chili sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Rinse squash seeds and pat dry. In a small bowl, whisk together honey, Srirach, oil, salt, and cumin; add seeds and stir until evenly coated. Spread seeds out evenly on baking sheet in a single layer. Cook for 15-20 min (watch closely so they won't burn).
2. Meanwhile, heat oil over medium heat in a dutch oven. When oil is hot, add, onions and sauté until onions are soft, about 3 - 5 minutes. Add red curry paste, red pepper flakes, ginger and garlic; stir to combine with onions; saute for 3 minutes. Add squash, sweet potatoes, carrots and chicken stock. Season with 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, then reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
3. Pour  vegetable mixture into blender/food processor (you will have to do this in batches unless you have a giant blender). Puree soup in batches until it is smooth.   Return to pot, or to a new pot.  *** Make sure that your blender is properly vented so it doesn't explode from the heat ***
4. Add coconut milk, fish sauce, and basil to the soup and cook until soup is heated through (2-5 minutes). When ready to server, stir in 2 tablespoons lime juice. Taste soup and add desired amount of Sriracha, salt and pepper to taste.
5. To serve, squeeze fresh lime juice onto individual bowls for a fresh pop and garnish with roasted seeds and cilantro.

This soup is very filling.  So, a couple bowls could be a meal by itself.  But, to up the freshness factor, we decided to have it with a thai chopped salad!  Recipe to follow to soon :)

Adapted from the fabulous Carlsbad Cravings blog!

Thai Peanut Chicken with Cilantro Lime Broccoli Slaw

On Monday night, I had a dinner date with a friend, butwanted to make sure Mr. S. had some dinner to eat too.  So, I went in search of crockpot recipe that I could have waiting for him when he got home.  Turned out that he didn't get home until 10:30pm because he was working super late on a big presentation.  So, we ended up eating the chicken for dinner last night.  I have a feeling it was even better the next day!

I sometimes find that crockpot recipes can be a little bland because they are cooked for such a long time. So, I think it's essential to add some freshness at the end.  Fresh herbs and a broccoli slaw were the perfect combination.  In the end, (after the lovely photo of course), we mixed it all together and made a thai rice bowl of sorts. YUM!

Thai Peanut Chicken

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

• 1 red pepper, diced

• 1 white onion, chopped

• 1/2  cup creamy peanut butter

• 1 lime, juiced

• 1/2 cup vegetable broth

• 1/4 cup soy sauce

• 1/2 tablespoon cumin
• 1/2 tsp of red pepper flake (more if you like spicy food....or omit if you don't)

• Chopped scallions

• Crushed peanuts

• Cilantro

• Rice, rice noodles, etc (to serve it on)
• Lime wedges for squeezing on top
  

Place chicken in the base of crock pot. Top with red pepper and onion.
In a bowl, mix together peanut butter, lime juice, vegetable broth, soy sauce, and cumin. Pour sauce over chicken.  Cook on low for 3-4 hours. 

Remove chicken from slow cooker and cut/shred into bit sized pieces.  Return to the sauce and mix.  
Scoop chicken and sauce over rice (we had jasmine rice) and top with scallions, peanuts, and cilantro. Squeeze some fresh lime juice over it.

Cilantro Lime Broccoli Slaw

• 2 12 oz bags of broccoli slaw  (or use 1 and half the dressing recipe)

• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 Tbsp honey

• 3 Tbsp chopped cilantro

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp cumin

• 1/2 tsp chili powder (we used Mexican for some kick)
• 1 tsp diced jalapeno (if desired)
  
  Combine all ingredients (except broccoli slaw) in a small food processor (or shake together).  Add additional salt, cilantro, and spices to taste. Toss with broccoli slaw.

Thai, it's what's for dinner! : Pad Thai and Tom Yum Soup

Mr. S and I are big fans of Asian food, especially Thai food.  This week, I was battling a terrible cold/sinus infection.  As a lifetime allergy sufferer, I have a personal remedy for allergy flair up -- SPICY food.  So, I decided to tackle two of our Thai favorites:  Pad Thai and Tom Yum Soup.

Over the past 6 months, we have perfected our favorite version of Pad Thai based on an America's Test Kitchen recipe, with a few additions.  The major change is the noodles!  We have always loved Drunken Noodles....particularly the noodle part....they are thicker than normal rice noddles. After much searching, we finally found them at an Asian Specialty store around the corner from our house, called the A-Mart.  They noodles are fresh, refrigerated and only last about a week.  They come cooked and in large sheets and you cut them to the desired size.   The other difficult ingredient to find was tamarind paste/soup base.  We also found this at the A-Mart.

Shrimp Pad Thai Recipe

1 package fresh rice noodles (or 8 oz 1/4 inch wide rides noodles)
1 Tbsp tamarind concentrate/soup base dissolved in 2/3c hot water
3 Tbsp fish sauce
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 Tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1-2 Tbsp of Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
12 ounces shrimp (we used 16-20 count shrimp), peeled, tails removed
1 shallot, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2-3 cups of bean sprouts
4 scallions, sliced thin on a bias
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
2 Tbsp roasted, unsalted peanuts
Lime wedges

Dissolve tamarind concentrate in water.  Wisk fish sauce, sugar, 1 Tbsp oil, vinegar, cayenne pepper (if desired) and sweet thai chili sauce into the tamarind mixture.

Add 1 1/2 tsp of oil to a non-stick pan and cook the shrimp until pink,  on medium-high heat, about 3-4 minutes (flip to cook on both sides).  Place shrimp in bowl and set aside. Add remaining 1 1/2 tsp of oil to pan.  Add shallot, garlic and cook for about one minute, until browned.  Add egg to pan and cook, stirring constantly for about 20 seconds.

Add noodles and sauce mix to the pan, toss until coated, about 1 minute.  Stir in shrimp, sprouts, and scallions.  Cook until noodles and shrimp are warmed.  Sprinkle with cilantro and peanuts.  Squeeze with lime juice and add additional sweet thai chili sauce if desired.


Tom Yum Soup
This recipe is loosely based on the combined recipes from America's Test Kitchen, Cooking Light, and The Food Network.

WARNING:  This soup is REALLY spicy!  If you're not a lover of spicy food, this is probably not a good recipe to try!  It was definitely too spicy for Mr. S but did the job on my congestion :)

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons panang (red) curry paste (you can use green curry paste if you want less spicy)
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 15 -ounce can coconut milk
1 tablespoon fish sauce, plus more to taste

1/2 cup small mushrooms, cut in half
2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced (optional)
2 small skinless, boneless chicken breasts, very thinly sliced on a bias
1-2  tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic and curry paste and cook, stirring, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth, coconut milk and fish sauce; cover and bring to a boil.

Add the chicken and simmer until just cooked through, about 3 more minutes. Add the mushrooms and bell peppers if desired minutes. Cook for 2-3 minutes (you want them to still be someone crispy). Stir in the lime juice and cilantro.  Serve immediately.

We added more lime juice, fish sauce, and cilantro to individual servings.

****Mr. S and I are taking a Thai Noodle Cooking class at the end of April with some friends....perhaps our favorite Pad Thai recipe will be replaced!  Stay tuned!****