Suchit's Thai Yum Nua

Counting calories is not hard at all when those calories are extremely tasty! This traditional Thai salad from my good friend Suchit is fantastically high protein as well as off the charts in a variety of vitamins. When you make this at home, you are in charge of how hot and spicy it is. The Thai way would be far too hot for the non-Thai, but that is easily taken care of by reducing the number of chilis. Taste the dressing by dipping a cucumber slice into it and adjust the heat as high as you like.

The nutrition facts for this recipe are found at Calorie Count, the best FREE website to count your calories and find a lot of very supportive friends.

Yum Nua
(serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 pound lean tender steak such as a strip steak grilled from medium to rare as you prefer and thinly sliced

1 medium size red onion, thinly sliced
Leaf lettuce, just enough to provide a bed for the rest of the salad
Cilantro leaves, chopped (add as much as you like, perhaps 1/3 of a bunch)
10 cloves of garlic, minced or ground
5 Thai chilis or 2-3 jalapeno, grind with a mortar and pestle
1 large cucumber thinly sliced
1 tomato, cut into chunks
3 T good quality fish sauce
3 T Lime juice

Mortar and Pestle

1 T Sugar

Directions:

Grind the fresh garlic and chilis using a mortar and pestle. Then mix with the fish sauce, lime and sugar in a medium bowl. This is your dressing.

Arrange the lettuce, steak, red onion, cucumber and cilantro on a platter. Pour the dressing over the salad platter reserving some to serve at the table for those that like more dressing.

Hint for the lazy chef:

If you cannot find fresh Thai or Jalapeno peppers in your area, look in the Asian section of your grocery store for those nice little jars of already ground red chilis - my favorite brand has a drawing of a rooster on it.

If you are not a hot and spicy food person, try adding only a scant teaspoon first and increase it as you taste. If you want authentic like Suchit makes - grind those chilis and garlic!