Broccolini salad with Fremented Beancurd dressing

We never eat enough salad and more often than not, it is because we felt salads are rabbits' food and that salad does not have the satisfying factor during and after eating. As such, to encourage more meat-eaters like yours truly to eat more greens in the form of salad, I realised that the crux is to focus on the selection of vegetable for the salad and secondly, the dressing itself. For vegetables selection, broccoli or cauliflower are good addition as it provides robust texture to the salad, great taste and eating pleasure. Next, the dressing. For this recipe, I have developed a special dressing and I hope that you will find it to be a keeper and encourage you to eat more salad! 

Ingredients (Fermented Beancurd Dressing):
1 cube of  plain Fermented Beancurd (You may substitute this with Marmite/Bovril)
1 clove of Garlic finely minced
1 Tablespoon of Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon of Sesame Oil
1-2 Tablespoon of Peanut Oil
1 Tablespoon of Tahini (You may substitute this with Kewpie sesame dressing)
Essential Oil mixture (see below)
Ground Black Pepper

Ingredients (Salad):
(Serves 2)
1 small Beetroot - cooked in hot water
1 Japanese Cucumber
2 stalk of Celery
6 stalks of Broccolini (Baby Broccoli, or you can use broccoli florets)
1/2 cup of Red Cabbaage sliced thinly
200g of oven baked pumpkin
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

How to use Essential Oil (EO) for cooking:

First and foremost, please check and ensure that the essential oils that you intend to use are safe for ingestion. I got mine from here, so I know that I could use them with a peace of mind.

I use Lemon Essential Oil for my Salad dressing. In order to use Essential Oil (EO) for this recipe, please adhere to the following: 

1. DO NOT use EO from unknown, unspecified and unverified sources (Can't stress this enough)
2. DO NOT drip the EO directly on your dish
3. DO NOT use EO on direct heat to avoid destroying the benefits of the EO

This is how you SHOULD do when using the EO for cooking this recipe. Pour some cooking oil into a small bowl, then add in(dilute) the Essential Oil so that you can add the EO evenly to the dish. By the way, dripping the EO directly on the dish will not cause you to die from EO overdose BUT it will definitely destroy your dish. No one likes a full mouthful of EO.

Essential Oil mixture

For this dish, add ONE drop of LEMON Essential Oil into a small bowl. Add 1-2 Tablespoon of Peanut/Rapeseed (Canola) Oil in the same bowl and stir to mix. This Essential Oil mixture is to be added to the salad dressing.

Direction:

1. Add the fermented beancurd, garlic, Dijon mustard, tahini, sesame oil, peanut oil and Essential Oil mixture into the pestle and mortar or a bowl. Grind them down to a fine paste.  
2. Season the dressing with some ground black pepper and set aside.
3. Wash and de-seed the Japanense cucumber. Cut the cucumber into bite size.
4. Heat up a pot of water to boiling point. Season with salt and a dash of peanut oil.
5. Wash the celery thoroughly and cut them into 2 inch length.
6. Soak and wash the broccolini. Peel the bottom part of the stalk and place both the broccolini and celery (4) into the pot of hot water. Bring the water to a boil and turn off the heat and let the vegetable rest in the pot for 5 minutes (uncovered pot).
7. Add some dressing on the base of the serving plate. Add in the cucumber and celery and some more dressing.
8. Add in the red cabbage and broccolini and spoon the dressing around the salad. 
9. Scoop the flesh of the oven baked pumpkin and place it on top of the salad. 
10. Sliced up the beetroot and add to the salad.
11. Add some ground black pepper and finish off with a dash of EVOO to serve.

NOTE:

This is a FREE website and also my source of income to support my family. If you liked the recipes that I am posting and appreciate the effort I put into developing these recipes, you could help by using This Link to purchase your Essential Oils. 

If you would like to consider using Essential Oils for cooking, you can get yours from here as this is where I got mine from. The reason for using this brand of Essential Oil is due to the reliable sources of their raw ingredients (own plantations) and the patented distillation technology employed by the company.

I also conduct workshops/classes for groups, so if you would like to engage my service please send me a direct email: seage79@gmail.com. You may also like to consider attending a dinner hosting at my humble abode (A group of 4-8) or engaging me to prepare a meal for a group of your friends at a designated place of your choice.

Last but not least, please note that I spend a considerable amount of my time and effort to develop this website, so if you would like to use any information or resources from my website, the least I could ask you to do is to give credit and provide a link for your readers to visit my page. Thanks in advance for your support.