When building more healthful sustenance into your weekly meals, stick salads are a helpful tool. In this version, we use autumn appropriate produce: daikon radish, kohlrabi, green apple, lime juice and Thai basil. Like the salad of beets, berries, herbs and nuts that I published in February, it’s exciting on the tongue. It’s also a fun one if you’re trying to introduce salads to kids or other salad adverse humans.
You can pick a variety of veggies depending on the season. We usually roll with 3 ‘stick’ components + citrus and herbs to dress. Then, pair with your protein of choice and you should feel quite satisfied.
Our digestive system feels happier when we eat meat proteins accompanied with vegetables. Specifically, adding daikon radish to meals can be helpful during Winter if you experience indigestion when eating heavier foods. In TCM, Daikon radish is also considered a cooling vegetable, and is thought to help with detoxification and clear phlegm.
For those of you who enjoy the ‘why’ explanations we try to weave in, there are plenty to find in this video:
Why do we brine chicken?
Why do we like green apple in a salad like this?
Why do we cut the veggies into sticks?
How to check for doneness when cooking chicken breast
*Amounts below are for two people but Tom and I eat large salad portions so the amount could stretch to 4 people easily. The stick salad also keeps well in the fridge overnight due to the lack of olive oil.
Need: For stick salad: 1/3-1/2 daikon radish, half kohlrabi, 1 green apple, juice of 1-2 limes, handful of Thai basil (or mint/fennel if you don’t have thai basil).
For the chicken: olive oil, salt and 2 chicken breasts.
Do: Brine the chicken breast anywhere between 20min - 3/4 hours before you cook. This means you are making a salt water bath and then letting the chicken breasts hang out in there for a while before cooking. Roughly 1-2 litres of water to 3-4 tablespoons of salt. Leave in fridge if you’re brining for longer than 20 min.
Chop the daikon radish, kohlrabi and green apple into sticks and add to a large bowl. Squeeze the juice of 1-2 limes in and toss. Tear up a large handful of Thai basil leaves (I love this herb for its liquorice scent and insane flavour), add to bowl and toss.
To cook the chicken, remove from brine, pat dry with paper towels and pound briefly with something heavy (we use a rolling pin) to create a more even cooking surface. Heat olive oil in a high sided pot with a sprinkle of salt on the base of the pot. Add chicken breast, brown both sides for roughly a minute each. Then, put a lid on, turn heat right down low and leave for 3-4 minutes, depending on how big the chicken breasts are. Turn heat off, leaving lid on and rest for another few minutes. Test for doneness by pressing into chicken breast to see if it springs back.
Serve. We like eating these two together with some greek yogurt mixed with lemon juice, micro-planed garlic and cracked pepper.
Please let me know if you try this! I love getting emails.
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