Good with everything Vietnamese dressing

The recipe for this dressing was possibly the best thing I brought back with me from a trip to Vietnam 3 years ago. It’s fat-free, transforms crunchy shredded vegetables into the king of salads and tastes great just drizzled over jasmine rice or plain noodles. I haven’t specified the heat of the chilli – you know your own chilli tolerance, so go as mild or as fiery as you dare.

3 tbsp fresh lime juice (from 1-2 limes)

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

½ garlic clove, crushed

½ red chilli, finely chopped

-          Mix all of the ingredients together, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

-          Taste to see if the balance is right – it should be a harmonious mixture of sweet, sour, salty and hot - adding more lime juice, sugar or fish sauce as necessary.

Crunchy Asian salad

When it comes to this salad I only have 2 rules: 1) use as many different coloured vegetables and fruits as you can to ensure a wide range of vitamins; and 2) exile the iceberg lettuce! The recipe below will get you started, but feel free to be creative.

Serves 4

1 carrot, julienned

¼ cucumber, julienned

¼ red cabbage, finely shredded

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

a handful sugar snap peas, sliced

1 mango, peeled and sliced

1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped

a few mint leaves, finely chopped

a handful salted peanuts or cashews

1 quantity of Vietnamese dressing (above)

-          To assemble the salad, simply toss all the ingredients together with the dressing and serve straight away.

-          As the vegetables are all quite robust, you can serve this salad on top of steamed jasmine rice too – just drizzle a little extra dressing over the top.

-          Try dressing the recipe up with some juicy king prawns or griddle a thick rib-eye steak and slice it as thin as you can - 1 steak will easily serve 4 people this way without anyone feeling short-changed.

You can pick up all the ingredients for this recipe at M&S in Festival Place.

Happy nibbling!

Fiona B x