What I love about this recipe – besides the balance between sweet, sour, hot, crunchy, and DELICIOUS – is that it’s pretty versatile. First – I basically just threw it together using whatever I had on hand and second, I can think of a 10 more ways to change it up.

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For example – hate pork? Try chicken! Or white fish! Or even steak! Steak would go really nicely with this spicy dressing.

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Why yes those are pens in the background – they uh… add… color to the picture…

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This recipe took me pretty much 20 minutes to throw together. If you’re using a white meat, you can marinate it for about 15 of those minutes while you put everything else together!

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The flavors in this salad are intense. I used a pre-tenderized lean pork cutlet – if you’re using chicken breast I suggest you butterfly and cut it up into thin strips.

Ingredients:

  • 2 pork cutlets/chicken breasts/sirloin steaks/meat of choice
  • 3-4 cloves garlic
  • salad mix/lettuce
  • half a medium onion
  • 3-4T macadamia nut oil
  • 3-4 green onion stalks
  • 1 tomato or a handful of cherry tomatoes
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1 green or red chili – de-seeded
  • 1 1/2T coconut nectar – can sub with sugar
  • 1T fish sauce or coconut aminos
  • juice of 1 small lime
  • Fat of choice for frying
  • chopped cilantro to top
  • handfull of almonds or peanuts
  • salt to taste
  1. Roughly chop garlic (save one clove), chili, green onions and add to a mortar and pestle. Grind into a fine paste. Add salt, lime juice, coconut nectar, fish sauce and mix. Give it a taste! Too salty? Add more coconut nectar! Too sweet? More fish sauce! Make sure YOU like it before you continue.
  2. Add oil and stir. What I did was use half the dressing and marinate my pork while I prepped the salad – you can skip this step entirely if you like.
  3. Quarter tomatoes and slice celery thin. Throw in a bowl with salad mix and using your hands, mix in desired amount of dressing.
  4. After about 15 minutes, fry up the onion half, diced fine, in a pan. Add chopped garlic and continue to fry until brown. Then add pork cutlets and marinade and fry until lightly browned.
  5. Take the pork out (along with juices!) and wipe down your pan.
  6. Lightly toast almonds/peanuts and then remove from the pan. When they cool, crush them.
  7. Top salad with pork, and garnish with nuts and cilantro! Drool a little. 😛