Thai Salad with Almond Butter Dressing

Purple Cabbage Garnish
Ingredients:

1 large head of purple cabbage OR 2 small heads of purple cabbage
Note: You will need 2 large leaves per plate. If you are serving 6, you will need 12 leaves.

Directions:
Core the cabbage. Gently peel off the leaves without breaking them. Cut away the leaf material leaving only the veins. Repeat this on 6 of the leaves . Refer to the video. Take the remaining leaves and repeat the procedure on the top of the leaf and half way down one of the sides. Leave the rest of the leaf intact. Refer to the video. Place the leaves in a wet paper towel and put them into the refrigerator while creating the rest of the recipe.

Salad
Note: This recipe calls for organic produce.

Ingredients:
¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves
¼ cup finely sliced spring onions
2 cups spiral sliced zucchini
2 cups broccoli florets
¼ cup chiffonade mint slices
1 bag carrots of many colors
¾ cup chopped red bell pepper
¾ cup chopped orange bell pepper
1 ½ cup julienned snow peas
¾ cup chopped, soaked, and dehydrated organic almonds
2 limes
1 large purple cabbage

Directions:
Take the cilantro and remove the stems. Chop the leaves into small to fine pieces. Set aside. Slice the spring onions as thinly as possible. Take a Spiralife slicer or a Turning Life slicer. Spiral slice the zucchini. cut the broccoli into small florets while removing the stems. Chiffonade slice the mint. Peel the carrots and julienne 1 cup of carrots and mix evenly for color. Spiral slice the next cup of carrots. Chop the bell peppers finely. Julienne slice the snow peas. Take a Breville food processor and finely chop the almonds. Do not over blend them because you don’t want almond powder. Juice the limes with a hand held juicer. Set the juice aside for the dressing. Take the lime skins and zest them with a microplane grater set aside. Take a large mixing bowl. Place all of the ingredients in the bowl except for the lime zest and the juice. Mix in evenly with your hands. Place the bowl into the refrigerator covered.

Fresh Coconut Milk
Coconut Milk Ingredients:
1 Thai Young Coconut

Directions:
The coconut will have a pointed top. Take a meat cleaver and shave the outer husk off of the top, exposing the inner shell. Take the corner of the meat cleaver toward the handle and tap the exposed coconut shell, going around in a circle. This will make a lid on the top that you can pry open. Pour the coconut water into a Vitamix using a strainer. Take the coconut in one hand and use a large spoon to scrape the coconut meat out of the shell with the other hand. Clean the meat of any brown bits of coconut shell or skin. Add the cleaned meat to the Vitamix. Blend on high until creamy smooth.

Thai Almond Dressing
Ingredients:
1 cup Organic Almond Butter)
½ cup fresh coconut milk
¼ cup organic agave (or sweetener of your choice)
¼ cup fresh lime juice
¼ cup organic tamari
¼ tsp. pink Himalayan salt
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
½ tsp. pressed garlic
½ tsp. grated ginger (microplane grater)
1 tbsp. tamarind paste (organic non GMO)

Directions:
Place all of the ingredients into a Vitamix and blend until creamy smooth.
Makes 2 ¼ cups

Assembly:
Note: Each serving consists of 2 cups of salad and ¼ cup of dressing.

Remove the salad from the refrigerator. Remove as much of the salad as you are going to use and place it in a large mixing bowl.  Pour the correct amount of dressing over the salad and hand mix it in until the salad is evenly coated with the dressing. Place one of the cabbage leaves with the veins only on a decorative plate. Take the other leaf that is still partially intact and place it on top of the other leaf. Refer to the video and photo. Place each serving of salad on each of the decorative plates. Start with the first portion in the center of the purple cabbage bowl and fan it out by hand from there. Take a pair of plating tweezers and place some lime zest artistically over the top of the fanned salad. Repeat the procedure for each of the servings. Refer to the video for assembly. Serve immediately.

The salad will last 2 days in the refrigerator in a covered container.  The dressing will last 4 days in the refrigerator.