I love to taste things and to eat things that I have never tasted or eaten before so when I was asked to take part in the Crush Findus Wok Challenge with an exotic veggie stir fry packet that contains ingredients like lotus root + green garlic + water chestnuts, I jumped at the opportunity. It was like opening a veggie lucky packet of mysterious ingredients! The best discovery was the delicious and crunchy + mildly sweet lotus root … well I fell in love with this curious vegetable. It was this perfect, beautifully white root with big wholes that jumped onto my plate. It immediately brought a smile to my face. It is little wonder that the lotus flower is adored and admired by so many.
Within the Buddhist religion… of which I am an ardent follower… the lotus flower is well known to me and so revered by other believers. Buddha is often represented on a pink lotus and within the rich symbolism of the Buddhist philosophy the lotus represents purity of the body, speech and mind and symbolises faithfulness.
So you, little lotus root are more than just a thing of beauty. I have read that you are high in dietary fibre, are considered a good food source for energy and as you are high in carbohydrates and low in fat and protein, you make a remarkably healthy food choice. I found out too that you can strengthen my spleen, promote the activities of my stomach and assist with tissue re-generation – thank you lovely one – and like me you also love soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger. No wonder I fell in love with you. You are my new food muse. I decided to make a warm beef and vegetable salad with my exotic vegetable pack. You must just try this – it’s fresh, crunchy, easy and delicious.
If you like my recipe, please go to Crush and vote for my exotic-asian-love-story with its beauty in a lotus root.
- Fillet
- 300g Fillet steak
- 1T Oil for frying
- Salt for seasoning
- Pepper for seasoning
- Wasabi Mayonnaise
- 3T Japanese sushi mayonnaise
- ¼ - ½ t Wasabi paste
- Dressing
- 1½ t Ginger - grated
- 1t Garlic - grated
- 125ml Soya sauce
- 1½ T Fresh lemon juice
- ½ Chopped chilli (optional)
- 2T Water
- Vegetables
- 500g Packet Findus Wok Chinese (1 Pack)
- 1T Oil for frying
- Firstly make your dressing – just mix all the dressing ingredients together and set aside.
- Then make the wasabi mayonnaise by stirring the mayonnaise and wasabi past together.
- Season the steak and fry to your taste. I like medium rare for this salad. Let it rest. I like to fry the meat in a separate pan – I do not want the flavours of the meat to be infused into the veggies when cooking – it detracts from the stark freshness and crispiness of the veggies.
- While the beef is resting – add oil to your wok and stir fry the veggies as per the instruction on the pack. Don’t add any seasoning or flavouring at this stage. The flavouring is in the dressing that we are going to pour over the veggies – almost like a salad dressing of sorts.
- To serve: Slice the beef into thin slices and place these on a plate, dress each piece with a bit of the dressing. Now add the veggies on top. Sprinkle generously with the dressing. Now add a few dollops of the wasabi mayonnaise here and there over the dish.. If you want you can also sprinkle with a few sesame seeds.
Stunning post and I must say a warm beef salad sounds quite appetizing!