Spicy Sesame Noodle, Green Bean and Carrot Salad
With a trip to the Minnesota State Fair, where Minnesotans meet to eat ridiciulous things on a stick, planned for Saturday, I needed Friday’s dinner to be full of healthy things and lacking massive quantities of dairy.
To help me get my game face on, I made this Sesame noodle, Green Bean and Carrot Salad from Epicurious. With a few revisions.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spicy-Sesame-Noodle-Green-Bean-and-Carrot-Salad-5472
Revisions: I added tofu for protein. My go-to tofu preparation, as someone who is convinced that I don’t need to eat meat constantly, but also as someone who is not completely convinced about tofu, is to cut extra firm tofu into quarter-inch cubes and fry it in a hot, enameled cast iron skillet with a bit of oil (in this case, canola and a bit of sesame oil) and some Sriracha, which adds flavor and seems to make things caramelize a bit better than leaving it out.
I also used a bunch more green beans, because I had a crap ton from our farm day at our CSA farm (Spring Hill Community Farm; they are awesome) and wanted to use them up before they went bad. And I threw in some Sriracha, not solely because I am obsessed, but also because my pantry was shy a hot pepper or two.
The big surprise with this recipe was just how orangey the orange zest made it. Although this won’t make it into the rotation like Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans with Feta, overall, this recipe did what I asked it to: provided good nutrition to counteract the next day’s State Fair gluttony, while tasting pretty good. A solid B.