Crunchy, Tangy Vietnamese Salad

Name: Crunchy, Tangy Vietnamese Salad (Goi Chay)
Yield: Serves 4 (or more as a side)
Cuisine: Vietnam
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon white sugar; 80 g (½ cup) roasted peanuts, roughly chopped; ½ small red onion, very finely sliced; 2 tablespoons fish sauce or vegetarian fish sauce; 2 tablespoons rice vinegar; 2 tablespoons lime juice; 1 Chinese napa cabbage, finely shredded; Generous scattering crisp-fried shallots; handful Thai basil leaves, roughly chopped; 2 carrots, peeled and grated; handful mint leaves, roughly chopped; 1 garlic clove, minced; Handful beansprouts; 1 red bird’s eye chilli, seeds in, finely chopped; 1 cm (½ inch) ginger, peeled and minced (1 teaspoon)

Goi Chay

Preparation info

Serves
4
(or more as a side)

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Nutmeg Trail

By Eleanor Ford

Published 2022

About

This vibrant, zingy salad demonstrates the integral role of chilli heat in Vietnamese, and wider South East Asian, cooking. It is all about balance, carefully combining salty with sweet, and sour with hot. A chilli garlic paste forms the base of many of the country’s dipping sauces and this dressing, here with a jolt of ginger in the mix as well. Add in zesty lime, brackish fish sauce and liquorice herbs and there are plenty of big flavours to offset the fresh delicacy, making it a salad yo