Greens with Negi Sauce

[helenjp]

Greens with Negi Sauce

Serves 4.

This cooked salad of broccoli or broccoli rabe, asparaguss and mixed Asian greens is simple to make, stands up to a night or two in the fridge, and the hearty flavor makes a nice contrast to rich New Year dishes.

Feel free to use any kind of young, vivid or dark-green flowering or leafy Chinese greens with white or red/purple stems.

• 1/2 head broccoli, or small pack of broccoli rabe or nanohana
  
• 1 taa-sai
  
• 1 chingen-sai
  
• 1 bunch green asparagus
  
• 1/2 bunch red-stemmed spinach or koutai-sai
  

* Break broccoli into florets, peel stem and cut into bite-sized pieces.

* Pull leaves of taa-sai away from roots, cut large leaves diagonally in half.

* Pull leaves of chingen-sai away from roots, trim ends, cut large leaves diagonally into bite-sized pieces.

* Peel lower half of asparagus if necessary. Cut spinach and asparagus into 4cm lengths.

* Wash all vegetables, drain.

* Chop ginger, garlic, and onion very finely. Mix with other seasonings.

* Bring large pan of salted water to a rolling boil. A little oil on the water helps keep the temperature of the water high to enable vegetables to be cooked very quickly.

Boil each vegetable separately, removing quickly and spreading to cool on a towel or bamboo tray etc. Pat off excess water if needed. Cook red-stemmed varieties last, as color leaches into water.

* Toss cooled vegetables together, place in serving dish, drizzle sauce over.

Keywords: Salad, Japanese, Vegetarian, Easy, Vegetables

( RG2071 )