Quick and Easy: Sesame Salad

By Thayer Wine
Nashville Tennessean

When you need a big salad for gathering, think of this one. It takes less than half an hour to make.

To make this salad more substantial, grill chicken breasts with a teriyaki sauce and cut into bite-sized pieces to add to the salad just before tossing.

• 1 large head romaine lettuce
• 1 can (8 ounces) sliced water chestnuts
• 1 can (2 1/4 ounces) sliced black olives
• 1 can (11 ounces) mandarin oranges
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped cashew nuts, preferably raw, unsalted
• 16 snow peas
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• For the dressing:
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed hot pepper flakes, optional

Wash lettuce and spin thoroughly dry; tear into bite-sized pieces and place in a large salad bowl.

Rinse and drain water chestnuts. Drain black olives and mandarin oranges and add all to the lettuce. Add chopped cashews to salad.

Steam snow pea pods for about one minute, or until they turn very bright green. Drain and immediately rinse under cold water to stop cooking. Drain well; cut on diagonal into thirds and add to salad. Chill, cover with damp paper towels until cooking time.

For dressing, whisk together olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar and hot pepper flakes, if desired.

At serving time, pour over salad greens and toss. Serve immediately.

Serves 6.