Lunch Week 22: Vietnamese Salad

So every Sunday, I head over to the kitchen to whip up a big batch of food for lunch next week. Yes, I brown bag. And I almost always do it, unless I become too busy to even buy cold cuts from the deli. I do it for several reasons being health, finance, and laziness. Now, you may think that spending hours on a day off to prep and cook five meals at once is hardly lazy. But let me remind you, I hate it when the time comes to decide what to eat for lunch every day. I work in Midtown so the choices are endless. My problem, the more choices, the harder it is for me. So it's much easier for me to have my lunch ready and already decided.

So my lunch for the week: Vietnamese Salad

I was inspired to make this salad by my fond memories of Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. The balance of bread to pickled veggies to meat & pate makes me happy every time. However, I wanted to make something reminiscent of that experience without having to eat the sandwich. So I made a salad out of the familiar flavors sans bread.

I started off with marinating some pork chops as my meat. I use soy sauce (light and dark), fish sauce, sesame oil, mirin (sweet sauce; sugar can be substituted) and sriracha. No need to salt here since the sauces are very salty already. Also, it's best to marinate this over night. When the pork has absorbed all that delicious flavor, it's time to cook them. Normally I cook the pork chops on the stove but this time I had access to a grill. So naturally, I grilled them up. On low-medium indirect heat, the chops cooked for 10 minutes on each side. I made sure they were cooked completely through. I'm not a fan of pink pork. A bad case of food poisoning would do that to you.

As for the vegetables, I sliced up some carrots, daikon (white turnip), and cucumbers. I quick pickled the first 2 vegetables in some rice wine vinegar, sugar, and water. I only pickled them for one day (not overnight). I wanted them to retain their crunchy texture but also absorb the sour flavor.

So a handful of spring mix goes into the bowl first. Then some sliced cucumbers, carrots, daikon, sliced jalapeno's, cubed pork chops, and diced pate. The last ingredient is the cilantro which adds an amazing freshness to the whole dish.

The result is something really tasty! The vegetables balance out the salty, fatty pork and rich pate. The pickled root vegetables play a good role in cutting the proteins. The jalapeno peppers add a nice additional kick of spice in random bites. Otherwise the sriracha sauce leaves a nice humming heat at the back of my tongue without making me reach for water. The cucumbers and cilantro add great freshness to the dish. My only gripe is that I wish I had added even more cilantro.