How to Pack a Salad/Salad With Rice Noodles, Tofu, Cilantro, and Peanut Sauce

Salad makes a great lunch, but I hate handing over $8 any time I want fresh greens on a work day. So, I saved one of those nifty plastic bowls from a local salad shop, and have been using it to carry my own homemade blends of veggies to work.

I've come up with the following method for layering a salad that will travel to work:

*Pour the dressing in the bottom of the bowl.
*Next, add ingredients that will not get soggy in dressing - for example, diced carrots, bell peppers, cucumber, apples, cabbage, red onion, olives, beans or walnuts.
*If you are using diced or crumbled cheese, add it next. Noodles work well at this stage, too.
*Finally, add the veggies that would get soggy if they sat in dressing (lettuce, spinach, herbs).
*Add-ins like baked tofu, falafel, or tortilla chips can be wrapped separately and mixed in at lunchtime.

This week's salad features rice noodles, tofu, cilantro, bell peppers, and red onion in a spicy peanut sauce (which can be more or less spicy depending on the amount of red pepper flakes used). It requires a little advance work (cooking the rice noodles, baking the tofu, and assembling the peanut sauce) but, once prepped, these ingredients can be used all week. I prefer to chop my veggies each night, but that could be done in advance, too.

I didn't have them this time, but chopped peanuts would make a great topping.

Ingredients
1 batch baked tofu, cooled
1 batch peanut sauce (see below), cooled
4 ounces rice noodles, prepared per package instructions, drained, rinsed in cold water, and set aside
2 red or orange bell peppers, washed and diced
2 cups cabbage, washed and thinly slivered
10 cups of greens (I used a lettuce/spinach blend), washed
1/4 red onion, washed and thinly slivered
1 bunch cilantro, washed

For each salad:

Pour 1/4 cup peanut sauce in the bottom of the bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon red onion, 1/3 cup bell peppers, and 1/3 cup cabbage.
Add about 1/2 cup chopped rice noodles.
Top with 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, and 2 cups chopped greens.
Close container.
Separately pack the tofu.

Peanut Sauce Ingredients
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I like the fresh ground peanuts from the health food store)
Dash red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 teaspoons ginger, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup water

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium heat until the sauce is smooth.
Bring the sauce to a light simmer.
Let the sauce simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat for about 10-15 minutes, whisking occasionally, until it thickens to the consistency of gravy.

Beatrice Goes Granola

Granola with yogurt is one of my favorite breakfasts, so the recent granola recipe in the New York Times caught my eye. I wondered how homemade granola might compare to the stuff I buy in the store. And, as someone who grumbles about prices every time she walks down the cereal aisle, I wondered if homemade granola might be more affordable than store-bought.

The recipe provides a basic road map for homemade granola -- rolled oats, nuts and/or seeds, dried fruit, coconut, cinnamon, maple syrup or honey -- while leaving the reader leeway to choose the specific ingredients. I decided to try a basic granola involving walnuts and chopped dates.

I started by combining the oats, nuts, coconut, cinnamon, salt and dates in a large bowl (and when I say "large," I mean large -- a standard-sized mixing bowl will not cut it, because the recipe involves about 10 cups of dried ingredients).

If you've read the recipe, you'll notice that the dried fruit isn't supposed to be added until after the granola has been baked. Whoops. I hoped the dates might just wind up being a little chewier than normal, but they actually were crunchy (although still edible) after the granola cooled... Please learn from my mistake, and be sure to wait until after the granola is baked to add the fruit!

Next, I added about 1/2 cup maple syrup. The mixture became damp and a little clumpier, but was not completely drenched.

The recipe then directs that the granola be poured onto a baking sheet, and cooked at 350 F for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. My baking sheet doesn't have rims, and so I lined it with parchment paper and folded the edges of the paper up to help keep the granola from falling off. As you can see from the photo, the granola was really piled onto the sheet. It might be a good idea to bake the granola in two batches to help it cook more evenly and to make it easier to stir.

Baking granola smells fantastic...

After about 40 minutes of baking and stirring, the granola was a nice golden brown (the photos don't really capture the change in color).

How did it taste? Oatier (if that's a word) and fresher than store-bought granola. I was quite pleased with all the walnuts. My only criticism would be regarding the crunchy dates, and those were my own fault.

And how did the price compare? As I figure it, the granola cost about $9.36 to make, broken down as follows:

1 cup chopped dates: $1.60
2 cups walnuts: $2.69
a generous six cups bulk rolled oats: $1.83
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut: $.91
1/2 cup maple syrup: $2.33
salt and cinnamon: negligible

The recipe yielded about 10 cups of granola. Bulk granola starts at about $3 per pound at Whole Foods, and I sometimes buy about 8.5 cups (1 pound 19 ounces) of boxed granola for $4.39. The homemade granola cost about $.94 per cup to make (plus baking time), while the boxed store-bought granola costs about $.52 per cup. While the oats are relatively inexpensive, the add-ins and sweetener really add up.

Conclusion: homemade granola may have certain benefits, including freshness and the ability to choose your own ingredients, but price is not one of them.