Eat Healthy and Cheap
Goi, Vietnamese Herb Salad
Goi is the Vietnamese word for a whole family of salads built on shredded cabbage, herbs, and a dressing that usually gets its sour-sweet-salty balance from fish sauce and sugar. Here a mashed date stands in for the sugar and a spoonful of low-sodium tamari for the fish sauce, so lime and chile can carry the rest. Massaging the cabbage with that dressing's acid, rather than a handful of salt, is the same trick that softens coleslaw and kimchi: it draws out water and takes the raw edge off without dulling the crunch. Toast the peanuts first and the salad reads as more than a garnish, mint and cilantro cutting through cabbage, chile, and crunch in every forkful.
Ingredients
- 6 cups green cabbage, very thinly sliced
- 1 cup Carrots, julienned or coarsely grated
- 1 Shallot, very thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup Peanuts, raw
- 1 clove Garlic, minced
- 1 Thai bird chile, thinly sliced, divided
- 2 Limes, juiced
- 1 tbsp Low-sodium tamari
- 1 Medjool date, pitted
- 1/2 cup Mint, leaves torn
- 1/2 cup Cilantro, roughly chopped
Method
- Slice the cabbage as thin as you can manage, then pile it into a large bowl with the carrots and shallot. Massage the vegetables with your hands for a minute or two: this is what softens raw cabbage's sharp edge, the job salt usually does, so none is needed here.
- Toast the peanuts in a dry skillet over medium heat, shaking the pan often, until they smell nutty and a few skins crack, about 4 minutes. Cool, then chop roughly. A raw peanut is flat; a toasted one is the whole point of the crunch in this salad.
- Mash the date to a paste with the back of a spoon, or blend it with a splash of water. Whisk it with the lime juice, garlic, tamari, and half the chile. This rebuilds nuoc cham's usual sour-sweet-salty-hot balance without fish sauce or added sugar: date for sweet, tamari for salt and savor, lime for sour, chile for heat.
- Pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture and toss well. Let it sit for 5 minutes so the acid keeps working the way the massage started, turning the cabbage tender without going limp.
- Fold in the mint and cilantro right before serving. Adding them last keeps the leaves bright instead of wilting into the dressing.
- Scatter the toasted peanuts and the remaining chile over the top and serve right away, while the cabbage still has some bite.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 145 calories, 6 g protein, 6 g fiber. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt.
