Thai Coconut Lime Dressing (and a Salad) Vegan Recipe

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 3/ Day 2 Theme: Cook with Coconut Dish: Thai Coconut Lime Dressing Today's dish uses coconut milk in a very interesting way, in a salad dressing. I bookmarked this recipe from Food52 a while back and made it for this week's 'Cook with coconut' theme because who doesn't like creamy coconut dressing with Thai flavors and served with colorful veggies. I sure do :-)
This recipe could not be simpler, mix all the ingredients for the dressing, chop all the ingredients for the salad, cook rice and assemble. Original recipe used fish sauce in the dressing and I subbed it with low-sodium tamari (soy sauce would work well too). I'm sure fish sauce is much more flavorful than just soy sauce, so if you can your hands on some vegan or vegetarian fish sauce, by all means use that. This dressing is great for salads or as a dipping sauce for spring rolls or lettuce cups.
The coconut & lime dressing is then poured our a colorful assortment of veggies and black rice. I didn't notice until later that veggies completely covered up my rice in the photos, but if you look real close (I guess) you can see a few grains of black rice. Brown rice would be a great alternate too.
Also original recipe had shredded chicken which I subbed with some store bought baked tofu. But you can bake your own tofu or simply stir fry until light brown, season with soy sauce, salt and pepper. Or use cooked chickpeas or even paneer to add protein to the dish. This salad would be great to serve for lunch or light dinner.

Thai Coconut Lime Dressing (Serves 2) Ingredients:

For the Dressing:
• ½cup Coconut Milk
• 3tbsp Lime juice
• 1tbsp Palm sugar or light brown sugar
• 2tbsp Fresh Lemongrass, finely minced
• 1 Green Chili, finely chopped
• 1 Garlic clove, finely minced
• 2tbsp Cilantro, finely chopped
• 2~3tbsp Low sodium Tamari (or low-sodium Soy sauce)
For the Salad:
• 1½cups Brown Rice or Black Rice
• As needed Baked Tofu
• 1 Small English Cucumber, diced
• 2 Large Radishes, thinly sliced
• ½cup Red Cabbage, thinly shredded
• 1 Small Carrot, shredded
• 1cup Snap Peas, cut on bias
• 2 Scallions, thinly sliced

Method:

1. To make the dressing: Whisk together lime juice, tamari (or soy sauce), coconut milk and palm sugar in a small bowl until the sugar is dissolved. Add chili, lemongrass, garlic and cilantro; stir until combined and set aside.
2. To serve: Divide the rice equally between 2 serving bowls. Arrange all the veggies on top of the rice. Drizzle with the dressing and serve right away.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 62.