Pasta Salad with a Thai Twise (Jody Lyman)

Here is the recipe for the delicious salad Jody made for Lunch and Learn. It was originally on KSL, and if yo go here you can find the recipe and a video of it being made. (The notes in the recipe below come from the original recipe on ksl.com, and aren't Jody's thoughts.)

Pasta Salad With a Thai Twist

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of linguine pasta cooked or 1 lb of rice noodles softened in hot water for 10 mins. (I like the rice noodles best, but sometimes they're hard to find in a regular grocery store.)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 T. green, yellow, or red curry paste or just use curry powder.
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/8 c. fish sauce or soy sauce

Method:

Note: fish sauce is the Thai version of soy sauce. It is just what it says it is. They take fish and put them in a barrel and let it ferment for months and then drain off the liquid. It smells horrible, but it sure makes the food taste good.

In a big sauce pan place the coconut milk and curry paste and bring to a simmer. Add the sugar and fish sauce or soy sauce. Taste and adjust to your liking with more sugar, or more soy sauce. Add the hot cooked noodles and toss. You want the noodles to absorb all the coconut milk and then cool down.

Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 head Napa cabbage chopped
• peppers sliced (A combination of red, yellow, and orange is best. You know it's all about the presentation!)
• purple cabbage
• matchstick carrots if you don't have colorful peppers
• fresh bean sprouts
• a bunch of green onions sliced
• some cucumbers sliced
• 1 bunch of cilantro chopped or a lot of chopped fresh basil (Basil is best!)
• sliced water chestnuts
• a few big handfuls of baby spinach (you can add more or less of this to stretch the salad)

Method:

In a really large bowl ( I love my IKEA honking huge silver bowl) add all the ingredients above.

Any of the veggies can be adjusted to your liking. If you don't have something don't worry. Just improvise or add a little more of something else. Once the noodles are cool toss them in the bowl with all the veggies.

Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1 c. olive oil
• 3/4 c. rice wine vinegar
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 t. sesame oil (optional)
• 1/2 t. ground ginger

Method:

Toss the salad all together and make all sorts of yummy sounds! Sprinkle a handful or two of chopped peanuts, or sugar glazed almonds. Taste it. I usually add a little more sugar, but it's up to you. This salad is huge so make sure you have a big group since it doesn't keep at all. 22 Garners slicked it right up!

Quinoa and Black Beans (Megan Sivert)

I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com. You can find it here. I made a few modifications, as noted below in parenthesis. I've also added cooked chicken to this before and that was a nice addition. FYI - I bought my quinoa at Costco, but if enough people ask for it at Clark's Market, maybe they'll start carrying it.

Ingredients
· 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
· 1 onion, chopped (I used half of a red onion)
· 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
· 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa (it’s always a good idea to rinse quinoa prior to cooking, since unrinsed quinoa can have a bitter flavor)
· 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (I used water and chicken bouillon)
· 1 teaspoon ground cumin
· 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or less if you want it less spicy)
· salt and pepper to taste
· 1 cup frozen corn kernels (I used a can of drained corn)
· 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained (I only used one can of beans, since two cans sounded like too much)
· 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (I used less, since not everyone likes cilantro, and ½ cup just sounded like too much)

Directions
· Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
· Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes (or longer depending on what consistency you want).
· Stir frozen corn and black beans into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the cilantro.