{"id":18069,"date":"2025-03-19T12:04:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T10:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/?p=18069"},"modified":"2025-04-03T19:11:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T17:11:35","slug":"celebrate-world-happiness-day-20th-march-with-a-autumn-salad-that-will-brighten-up-your-day-samfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/celebrate-world-happiness-day-20th-march-with-a-autumn-salad-that-will-brighten-up-your-day-samfa\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate World Happiness Day (20th March) with a Autumn Salad that will brighten up your Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can what you eat make you happy?\u00a0 We think so.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It’s that in-between season where the evenings turn just a touch cooler as we experience that definite shift\u00a0 away from the brightness of summer to\u00a0something more cozy and comforting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And, whilst we are still in a salad mood, we’re thinking they should add<\/span>\u00a0extra<\/span> depth of flavour, a nutritional boost, a sense of fullness<\/span> and a punch of crunch.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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  • Needless to say our scrumptious Mushroom and Crispy Rice Salad is the one we turn to. I<\/span>t’s the perfect\u00a0<\/span>side dish, can double up as a\u00a0<\/span>light lunch and the flavoursome<\/span> dressing makes it one of our favourite salad picks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Mushroom Crispy Rice Salad<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    Serves 6<\/p>\n

    Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Dressing:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • 2 Tbsp peanut butter<\/li>\n
    • 2 Tbsp hot water<\/li>\n
    • 1 clove garlic, grated<\/li>\n
    • 2 tsp ginger, grated<\/li>\n
    • 2 Tbsp sesame oil<\/li>\n
    • 1 Tbsp soy sauce<\/li>\n
    • 4 Tbsp rice vinegar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Crispy rice:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • 2 cups cooked white rice<\/li>\n
      • 1 Tbsp soy sauce<\/li>\n
      • 1 Tbsp sesame oil<\/li>\n
      • 2 Tbsp gochujang*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Salad:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • 2 spring onions, sliced<\/li>\n
        • 1 ripe avocado, diced<\/li>\n
        • 1 small Mediterranean cucumber, diced<\/li>\n
        • 1 head baby white cabbage, very thinly sliced<\/li>\n
        • 100g steamed broccoli, cooled and finely diced<\/li>\n
        • Handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped<\/li>\n
        • Handful fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped<\/li>\n
        • 250g white button mushrooms, sliced<\/li>\n
        • 100g fresh lettuce leaves<\/li>\n
        • 2 Tbsp roasted peanuts, roughly chopped<\/li>\n
        • Salt and pepper, to taste<\/li>\n
        • Lime wedges, for serving<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          *Gochujang is a spicy, fermented chilli paste used in Korean cuisine. It is readily available at all Asian supermarkets as well as Woolworths, Checkers, Yuppiechef and a lot of online retailers e.g. Faithful to Nature.<\/p>\n

          Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n

          For the dressing:<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Combine the peanut butter and hot water and whisk.<\/li>\n
          2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.<\/li>\n
          3. Taste to adjust seasoning and then set aside until serving.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            For the crispy rice:<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Preheat oven to 200\u02daC.<\/li>\n
            2. Place cooked rice in a bowl with the soy sauce, sesame oil and gochujang.<\/li>\n
            3. Mix the seasoning thoroughly into the rice with your hands so every grain is covered.<\/li>\n
            4. Transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper.<\/li>\n
            5. Spread the rice out in a thin layer.<\/li>\n
            6. Bake for 10 minutes and then agitate, flipping the rice over to evenly brown all the grains.<\/li>\n
            7. Bake for another 10 minutes until brown and crispy.<\/li>\n
            8. Set aside to cool.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              For the salad:<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. Combine all of the salad ingredients except for the lettuce leaves and peanuts together in a large bowl.<\/li>\n
              2. Season with a little salt and pepper. Mix.<\/li>\n
              3. Add the crispy rice and pour over the dressing.<\/li>\n
              4. Toss to mix well.<\/li>\n
              5. Assemble dressed salad on a large serving platter.<\/li>\n
              6. Plate lettuce leaves alongside the chopped salad.<\/li>\n
              7. Scatter with peanuts and serve with lime wedges on the side and enjoy!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Can what you eat make you happy?\u00a0 We think so. It’s that in-between season where the evenings turn just a touch cooler as we experience that definite shift\u00a0 away from the brightness of summer to\u00a0something more cozy and comforting.\u00a0 And, whilst we are still in a salad mood, we’re thinking they should add\u00a0extra depth of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recipes"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18071,"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069\/revisions\/18071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.food-blog.co.za\/joburg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}