HHDD - Summer Salads

Dear foodies,

Lime & Mint noodle salad

A few months back Soma was playing host to the 26th edition of HHDD – Hay Hay its Donna Day. It is an event created to celebrate the wonderful recipes by Donna Hay. The recipes are simple, straight-forward and satisfying. She made a enticing roasted vegetables pasta dish and invited us to re-create a version of the dish. I sent in my pasta recipe to her event and was pleasantly surprised to be picked the winner. The event was placed on hold the past few months and that's when Denise of Chez Us stepped in and took over the reins for this lovely event from Bron. Read more about the event here & here.

I got stuck with a bad bout of cold and haven’t been able to share the event announcement with all of you earlier. It being summer, I choose salads as the theme and Donna Hay has many easy, refreshing salad recipes. I was browsing through part of her collection and the Lime & Mint noodle salad looked really good. The salad was bursting with fresh summery flavors – crisp beans and potent herbs like mint & cilantro, jazzed up with lime juice. (The overgrown mint plant in my patio did not have any influence on my selection ) I had some bean thread noodles left over from the fresh spring rolls I made earlier and the salad was ready in about 15mins!

Here is the recipe I used. I used regular cucumber instead of the Lebanese ones and used low-sodium Tamari instead of the fish sauce (make sure to taste and add more salt). I also was generous in adding the crushed peanuts, love them :D The salad can be served cold or at room temperature and is ready to be eaten immediately. I made it for dinner last night and had the leftovers for lunch today and it tasted even better with the noodles soaking up all the flavorful dressing.The mint, lime and cilantro create magic for your tastebuds. It’s a really flavorful salad and the bean noodles make it filling. Its a perfect vehicle to savor the fresh vegetables in the market, and did I say it has no oil! And if you use the microwave to cook the beans and warm water for the noodles, you don't have to turn on the stove.

So now it’s your turn to toss up a Summer salad, here are a few rules for you - slightly modified from what Denise has on her page.

Hay Hay it’s Donna Day is open to all food and wine bloggers.

1. Entries submitted for HHDD must be made specifically for the current round of this event, although photos may be submitted to photo competitions such as “Does My Blog Look Good In This.”
2. I've chosen Summer Salads as the theme this month. Participants may make that exact same recipe as is, or put their own spin on the recipe by altering the ingredients whilst remaining with the theme. Or if they prefer participants may share a well loved recipe within the same theme.
3. Entrants must include a link to this announcement page and to Denise, the facilitator in their entry post.
4. Entries can be made at any time once the event has been announced, but must be posted and emailed to the host by the closing date - August 15th, 2009.

At the end of the event, I will create a round up of the recipes and they will be open for VOTING. The winner will get to host the next edition of HHDD on their blog :)

A few more pointers:

• Use a salad recipe given by Donna Hay, you will find some very good ones HERE. Try to stay close to the basic recipe, but feel free to add you own twist and personalize it.
• It needs to be a light salad using fresh seasonal produce - could be vegetables or fruits. Even better if you can use something you grow in your garden.
• I’d prefer if you make it a vegetarian dish (no-meat), but if you have to, it would be nice if you could suggest a vegetarian alternative :)
  

So there, I'm done with the rules, now have fun with salads in the next few weeks and come back to share them with me. I'll be waiting to hear from you :)