Colourful and Quick

There are some cookbooks in our house that are so well-used, they are now falling to bits - the Australian Women’s Weekly Oriental Dinner Party cookbook is one such favourite, and this recipe,

Snow peas and Mushroom Salad, is one of the many quick salads that is good for a hot summer’s day when you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen.

What you’ll need:

For the Salad:

* 500g snow peas

* 500g mushrooms sliced, (used baby brown mushrooms)

* 2 red peppers, chopped

Mushroom, snow pea

For the Honey dressing:
* ½ cup oil

* ¼ cup vinegar

* 1 teaspoon honey

* 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

* ½ teaspoon sambal oelek (or if you’re out of that, a teaspoon of chilli sauce mixed with crushed chillies)

* (Also added 1 teaspoon salt)

What to do:

Top and tail snowpeas. Microwave/boil/steam until cooked, then immediately rinse through cold water (Or put them in a colander and place in freezer, until cool, when the tech-heads around the house are not watching).

Red capsicum

Then next bit involves a lot less drama: Slice (cleaned) mushrooms and chop peppers. Then combine snowpeas, mushrooms and red pepper in a bowl – since I didn’t have the patience to arrange it all nicely on a plate as shown in the book.

For the dressing: Mix all ingredients and pour over the vegetables. If you are using a plate, the amount of dressing is sufficient. Or you will have to double the quantity as the “taste-testers” won’t be able to taste the dressing which has all pooled at the bottom of the bowl.