Tomato Mung Bean Salad

I'm very excited and nervous at the same time thinking about my upcoming Vegan Fusion workshop in Seattle.  The last two day workshop I attended, I was the most experienced vegan cook in the room besides the chef.  This time I will probably be with some experienced chefs who are taking their craft to the classroom or back to their restaurants to teach their cooks.  This class will be a bit challenging, but enjoyable I'm sure.  As time progresses, I find it difficult at times to get what's in my brain to come out of my mouth with grace. :-)

I received an email with the supplies and schedule of the course and I feel like I did when I was getting ready for a college class.  I've also been going through the ten day course via the Healthy Cooking Lessons website, a prerequisite for the course. I have three modules left. Chef Mark has asked us to be prepared with four or five choices of recipes we'd like to try out of the Vegan Fusion cookbooks.  We'll be working on preparing a training demo as well as shopping and prepping for our own demonstrations. I am really looking forward to it.  Two of the books Mark suggested we bring and choose recipes to demo out of I hadn't worked with;  The 30 Minute Vegan, and The Taste of the East.  I promptly purchased them and have been working out of them the past few weeks.

One of the favorites so far is a Thai recipe, the Tomato Mung Bean salad.  I kind of giggle a bit because it's from the 30 Minute Vegan series.  But, it's a thirty minute recipe after I spend three days sprouting the mung beans. Yes, I am finding that most of the recipes are for thirty minutes after I've done my prep work.  I've enjoyed everything I've tried so far. But, there's no possible way I'd find mung bean sprouts, one of the key ingredients, in this town.  As in all the recipes in these books, the ingredients can be substituted many ways, I'm sure I can find alfalfa sprouts and maybe some pea sprouts in town I wanted to make it with the mung beans.  So, it's a thirty minute recipe after three days of sprouting.  I tried it before the local potluck and it was such a great, refreshing salad, also very high in nutrition. I took it to the last potluck and it was a hit.

 

Tomato Mung Bean Salad

     The 30-Minute Vegan's Taste of The East

3 large tomatoes, chopped (3 cups)
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1½ cups mung sprouts
½ cup sliced green onions
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1 hot chile pepper, seeded and diced, or to taste, (I used a mild Anaheim pepper for the potluck)
1 tablespoon minced fresh mint
1 tablespoon soy sauce (I used wheat free tamari for my Gluten free friends)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Dash of cayenne pepper, or to taste
½ teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and gently mix well.

~~Enjoy!~~