Thai Mango Rice Salad

What's unusual about this salad is that the dressing doesn't contain any fat: it’s just lime juice, fish sauce, and sweetener.
I didn't omit the fat intentionally. It is based on a traditional Thai recipe, which was made this way

In San Diego, I live near a Vietnamese neighborhood where I can get every obscure ingredient I need to make southeast Asian dishes. Kaffir lime leaves, which are the leaves of a particular kind of lime tree, are one of those ingredients. When you see and smell a kaffir lime leaf, you might recognize it as the leaf that you’ve seen floating around in Thai soup. The cool thing about kaffir lime leaves is that you can eat them. Anything you add them to is guaranteed to taste like Thai food. If you can’t find them, just skip them and throw in a few more basil and mint leaves. Don’t use regular lime or key lime leaves. They taste like tree leaves and let’s just say there’s a reason we don’t eat tree leaves.  

What's unusual about this salad is that the dressing doesn't contain any fat: it’s just lime juice, fish sauce, and sweetener . I didn't omit the fat intentionally. It is based on a traditional Thai recipe, which was made this way. You can buy fish sauce in the Asian section of regular grocery stores.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 4 cups cooked brown rice

• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons fish sauce

• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

• 1 tablespoon monk fruit or erythritol sweetener

• 1 medium, ripe mango, peeled, cut off the pit, and cut into ½-inch cubes (about 2 cups; or 2 cups ½-inch cubes pineapple)

• ½ head Napa cabbage, cored and shredded crossways

• 2 cups bean sprouts

• ½ cup loosely packed basil

• ½ cup fresh mint

• ½ cup fresh cilantro

• 1 cup roasted and salted peanuts (or cashews)

WHAT TO DO:

Put the cooked rice in a big, wide bowl. Stir the fish sauce, lime juice, and sweetener together in a small bowl to dissolve the sugar. Add the mango, cabbage, bean sprouts, basil, mint, and cilantro. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad, add the peanuts, and toss it all up. That’s it. Couldn't be easier. Or tastier.

Serves 4 to 6

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