January Meal: Asian Beef Salad

Our local pharmacy has given us a wall calendar of "Healthy Family Favourite Recipes"!
For each month there's a new recipe to try, plus a "Tip of the Month!"

Mum and I have decided to give the monthly recipe a shot for each new month, and I should probably get around to posting the results of January's meal BEFORE January is over, shouldn't I!!



January Meal: Asian Beef Salad



First up, the cast of characters, minus the fresh herbs (all of which came from my garden).

Preparing this meal was very easy, but it makes a lot, even though the recipe says it serves four people. For easy mixing I divided it into two bowls.



First thing you want to do is rub sesame oil over both sides of your steak and sprinkle them generously with cracked pepper!



Then chop up all of the veggies.. (you can de-seed your chillies if you don't like a very spicy meal, I left ours in since my brother had been complaining about the lack of heat in recent family meals ;)



Whisk up the dressing ingredients...



Let your rice noodles soak in some boiling water for a little while, then drain when they're done...



And then go pick all of your herbs and shred them into the salad (from my garden: Thai basil (a new discovery, it's growing quite well and tastes -amazing-!), Coriander and Mint)



Then just toss everything together...



Slice up your meat after it's done resting and add that as well...



Serve up and enjoy! It got approvals all round; a very simple and pleasant summer meal.



Yum! Can't wait for next month!

Recipe for Asian Beef Salad.

Ingrediants:
250g rice noodles
500-600g porterhouse or rump steak
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon palm or brown sugar
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 small cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 small red capsicum, julienned
12 young mint leaves
1/2 cup Thai basil leaves
1/2 cup Coriander leaves
2 small red chillies, very thinly sliced

Preheat a grill.
Brush the sesame oil over both sides of the steak and sprinkly surface with pepper.
Cook for 3-4 minutes each side on grill for medium rare.
Transfer to a plate, cover lightly with foil and leave for a few minutes for juices to "set".

Place noodles in a bowl, pour boiling water over them and let sit for 5 minutes. Drain thoroughly.

In small bowl whisk together fish sauce, lime juice and sugar for dressing.

In a large bowl combine noodles, tomatos, cucumber, capsicum, fresh herbs and chilli.
Slice the beef thinly, add to the salad.
Drizzle over the dressing and toss lightly to mix.
Serve and enjoy!

Oh, and today's "Tip of the Month" is to Drink 8 classes of water a day! This is not difficult for me to do at all since the weather has been so hot; have you been getting enough water?



Thanks so much to House of Annie for pointing me towards the Grow Your Own Round-up. A blogging event that celebrates home-grown produce! What a fantastic idea!
Since I used my home-grown herbs in this meal I've gone ahead and entered this current round.
You can read more about the GYO even here, and check out Annie's site for this month's entry form!