salad Archives - The Tasty Spoonful

Healthy Food

Rocking rice paper rolls with Peanut Rayu sauce

By Brooke Murphy February 24, 2025

Rice paper rolls are the perfect balance of fresh, crisp, and satisfying, making them a go-to for light meals and snacks. Packed with vibrant veggies, herbs, and your choice of protein, they’re endlessly customisable and effortlessly delicious. But what truly takes them to the next level is the dipping sauce—bold, creamy, and bursting to the brim with mouth-tingling tastes and texture.

Like its rice paper-wrapped vehicles of choice, our peanut sauce is also totally customisable. Made with our one and only original Rocking Rayu, It delivers a silky texture with layers of roasted peanuts, sweet coconut, and a slow-building chili warmth. Whether you’re rolling up shrimp, tofu, or a rainbow of crunchy vegetables, this sauce ties it all together with a perfect balance of heat and sweetness. Once you try it, you’ll never go back to plain peanut sauce again!

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Appetizers

Incredible 5-minute Asian cucumber salad

By Brooke Murphy October 16, 2024

The internet has been going crazy about this Asian cucumber salad that’s bursting with flavor and crunch. The perfect blend of crisp cucumber slices, tangy rice vinegar, umami-rich soy sauce, with a hint of sweetness. But instead of the traditional sesame seeds for texture, when paired with our macadamia finger lime rayu, it transforms into something far more interesting and intensely satiating. Whether you’re serving it as a side dish or enjoying it on its own, this cucumber salad will bring a light, fresh touch to any meal.

What also makes this recipe so special is how fast and easy it is to prepare. With just a handful of ingredients and minimal effort, you can have a vibrant and healthy dish on the table in no time. This salad pairs well with grilled meats, stir-fries, or even as a palate-cleansing appetizer on crackers with soft cheese.

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Gluten Free

Easy preserved lemons

By Brooke Murphy March 23, 2024

Someone, somewhere once said “If life gives you lemons, preserve them…” and whether or not you believe this to be a metaphor about how sometimes things come out better than before when they’ve been given a minute to mature OR you just really care about food sovereignity and preparing for our potential impending mass extinction: Either philosophy ends in the same delicious outcome, preserved lemons. A flavour bomb in a beautifully citrusy smelling jar that will 100% revolutionise your cooking if you’ve not yet had the joy of cooking with them before and make your mouth water at the thought of them if you have.

The recipe I’m using today has been inspired by the one and only Yotam Ottolenghi hero of Mediterranean fusion inspired cuisine and host to one of the most interesting and inspiring test kitchens in the world. Whilst I know it’s not intended that way, usually when I’m making one of his recipes I have to set aside a good half a day to carry it out, this however, is one of the quickest and simplest (and most fool proof) fermentation methods I’ve come across yet.

The key, like any successful ferment however is sterilisation, so please don’t skip on that step. Outside of that however, it’s fun and almost unbelievably simple recipe to follow which I hope you enjoy making as much as you do eating!

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Healthy Food

Spicy chicken, pineapple & Thai basil lettuce cups

By Brooke Murphy January 21, 2024

If you’re like me, you’ve probably made lettuce cups a thousand times. They are so simple and quick to make, they pack a good punch of protein and are generally an absolute crowd-pleaser. Before finding this variation however, I’d yet to venture into the world of chicken in a lettuce cup let alone a marinade poached variety that brings an extra layer of flavour to the party in your mouth. Now that I’ve tried it, I’m a pretty big fan, and not only am I going to be making these on repeat, I’m also going to be experimenting with this technique all over the place, look out tacos, you’re in for a re-invention…

It just so happens that this recipe goes exceedingly well with a dose of our original homemade rayu, which, unlike most of the product-pitch focused recipes on this blog (and there’s plenty) is a genuine fluke and so of course, we hope you’ll also buy some and try adding this little something something extra. It is, however, a stand alone delicious dinner, and a pretty budget-friendly addition to your recipe repertoire as well.

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Appetizers

Kimchi

By Brooke Murphy December 3, 2023

“Don’t knock it till you try it…” I know that I’m one of those kooks who’s so down the fermented foods rabbit hole that you could pickle pretty much anything and I’d give it a try… but kim chi should ACTUALLY be a staple in everyone’s refrigerator. (alongside its best friend gochujang paste but that is a story for another time.) It’s spicy, it’s umami, it’s powerfully flavorsome and best of all, it elevates just about anything that you can think to put with it – and it doesn’t have to be an Asian-style dish either! My favourite use for this funky ferment is actually in a plain old cheese toastie, it’s a match made in heaven, similarly, I love it in my peanut sauce doused buddha bowls, heck I’ve even made a chicken stew with it and an amplified onion bahjii with it… it’s a lot more versatile than you might think!

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Gluten Free

Spicy sweet potato and pumpkin pureé

By Brooke Murphy August 10, 2023

The inspiration for this recipe came from two thoughts. The first was that I genuinely needed to make more puree pots for my 9-month-old son (yes, I’m still crazy enough to be making them from scratch)… and the second was about a friend of mine whose 4-year-old was already quite the foodie because` to quote her mum – “she was eating butter chicken before she could walk”… So I was inspired to spice it up and make sure that MY son, wouldn’t suddenly decide that cinnamon tasted unpleasant or that he wasn’t able to cope with a little bit of basil in his omelet… because that’s a reality I’m just not willing to face. Though, I’m not foolish enough to believe it might not still happen, but for now I’m happily living in my delusional little spice bubble.

Now, I can’t say this masterpiece was intentional.. it was more of a hurried boiling and puree-ing frenzy in between naps and hanging out seemingly infinite loads of laundry. But whatever genius cooking magic took over, it ended up with spectacular results.

It genuinely tasted so good I ran over, spoonful in hand to my partner who was trying to work away from home (as he does) and excitedly asked him to try it. I got the reaction I always get, which was “it’s good” and a shrug.. but he’s French, and a stoic Frenchie at that, so that’s a reaction on the spectrum of positive from what I can work out.

So, from baby food to foodie food, this was now going on the menu. Our first port of call was to pair it with posh sausages from the butcher across the road, (but it pairs equally well with a steak, lamb chops, lamb shanks, a kangaroo steak, hell throw in a pigeon breast or two there too if you really want to get fancy!) – It’s brilliant if you’re just up for something more interesting than mashed potato, but it’s also a really intriguing way to elevate a regular week day meal to dinner party worthy status… AND on top of all, it makes brilliant baby food too! My Son can’t get enough of it, and he’s by far my worst critic!

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Gluten Free

Beetroot, Whipped Feta, Kefir & Rose Salad

By Brooke Murphy July 14, 2023

The inspiration for this recipe came from a wonderful cookbook called Gather by Gill Meler. At the time I tried it, we were on lockdown and I was fermenting A LOT of my own food and drinks including milk kefir, which, just like a good sourdough starter is forever giving, and I was genuinely running out of ways to use it up! So this recipe was a welcome and unexpected surprise.

This dish is a beautifully sweet, tart and light salad that works on many occasions, a simple plate on a summers night, an unexpected side at a BBQ and a fresh addition to a Mediterranean feast. Personally I love beetroot, but I do find it hard to figure out ways to use and celebrate it in my cooking. This is one of those welcome beetroot first recipes I love to whip out when the season hits.

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