Looking to incorporate more vegetables into your diet? This irresistible tiger salad is for you. Xian Famous Foods’ Tiger Vegetable Salad is a refreshing side dish that pairs with most of the Asian dishes from Xian Famous Foods’ new cookbook, like their Pineapple Chicken, Cold Skin Noodles, or Spicy Cumin Lamb. With lots of celery, cilantro, and pepper, this tart, fresh salad is sure to help fight off the winter blues.
Words by Jason Wang and Jessica Chou. Photo by Jenny Haung.
Xian Famous Foods’ Tiger Vegetable Salad’s name doesn’t come from the colors of the salad (tigers aren’t green), but from the essence. This is a fiery, sinus-clearing, aggressively herbaceous mixture that packs a wallop with cilantro, celery, green onions, and longhorn pepper slivers. Contrary to popular belief, the heat doesn’t come from chili oil, but from the raw peppers. The idea is that once you eat this, you’ll roar like a tiger . . . because you’re in so much pain.
Of course, you can make this as spicy or as mild as you want, and luckily the sesame and vinegar dressing adds a touch of sweetness to balance it all out. I like to have this at the beginning of the meal to whet my appetite, but it’s also good in between meat dishes, since it doesn’t just cleanse your palate—it straight-up obliterates it.
Xian Famous Foods cookbook is available here.
Xian Famous Foods' Tiger Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
- 2 small handfuls, about 2 ounces/54 g cilantro sprigs, coarsely chopped
- 2 stalks Chinese celery , diagonally sliced into long segments
- 4 green onions, white part only, halved and then cut vertically into matchsticks
- 2 inch 5 cm piece red longhorn pepper, thinly sliced
- 2 inch 5 cm piece green longhorn pepper, thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Instructions
- Add the cilantro, celery, green onions, and peppers to a bowl and toss to combine.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the salt, sugar, vinegar, and sesame oil to create the dressing.
- Pour the dressing over the vegetables. Toss to combine and serve.
Notes