Vietnamese Beef Salad

Photo: Grace Geiger

Ingredients

1 Ice burg lettuce, torn into bite sized pieces

1 carrot, grated

1 cucumber, peeled in stripes, and sliced thinly

1 roma tomato, sliced thinly

whole basil leaves

mint leaves

1 chopped cilantro

2 scallions, chopped

4 thin cuts of raw steak or pork

2 cups of cooked white rice

cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons sesame oil

1 juiced

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons fish sauce

3 cloves minced garlic

1 small chile, minced (optional)

1 scallion, chopped

sesame seeds

Preparation

First, make a salad plate (decomposed salad) by arranging the ingredients in piles on a large platter (lettuce, mint, basil, carrots, cilantro, tomato, cucumber)

To make dressing, simply combine all ingredients (soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, fish sauce, scallions, garlic, chili pepper, sesame oil, lime juice, sesame seeds, cilantro) that are remaining. Add more sugar or vinegar depending on taste and preference.

Next, put the raw beef in a container with 1/3 of the dressing and a cup of water, until the grill heats up

This would be a good time to start your rice.

When the grill is hot, put the beef on the grill until it is nice and charred. Add leftover marinade onto the beef as it grills. When the beef is cooked, cut into thin strips

Finally, serve the fresh salad over rice, with the beef and the dressing.