Filipino Fiesta Salad

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Filipino Fiesta Salad is a great addition to a family Sunday lunch. This is made with fresh vegetables and topped with salted eggs. Then everything is tossed in a simple vinaigrette. A simple salad that will make everybody happy!

I picked up this recipe from Yummy.PH and you can find the original recipe HERE.  I just don’t get it why they call this Filipino Fiesta Salad as it looks like it is a salad for any day of the week, although it is best on Sundays when the whole family is complete.  When I made the Filipino Fiesta Salad, it was a companion dish to fried fish and it was perfect!  One of my daughters really liked it so much that she was still eating the leftovers the following day.

The mixture of vegetables in the Filipino Fiesta Salad is just perfect.

As per wikipedia, string beans (sitaw in Filipino) is actually called Asparagus bean and/or yardlong beans.  In the Philippines, they are known as sitaw or butong and are widely eaten stir-fried with soy sauce, garlic, and hot pepper and in an all-vegetable dish called utan, or are stewed in bagoong-based dishes such as pinakbet and dinengdeng. Other Filipino dishes that have yardlong beans as ingredients are sinigang and kare-kare. Yardlong beans are also separated from the pod and are cooked with the buds of the alukon tree (Alleaenthus luzonicus) and other vegetables in a dish called agaya in northeastern Luzon.

Jicama (singkamas in Filipino) was actually spread by the Spaniards from Mexico to the Philippines (where it is known as singkamas, from Nahuatl xicamatl), from there it went to China and other parts of Southeast Asia, where notable uses of raw jícama include popiah,fresh lumpia in the Philippines and salads in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia such as yusheng and rojak.

One last thing, the vinaigrette is really good in this Filipino Fiesta Salad.  You can actually make this separately and use it for other vegetable (green) salads that you could think of.  The chili adds some zing to this vinaigrette.

Go ahead and try making this Filipino Fiesta Salad.  You will not regret it!

Ingredients

• 250 grams string beans (sitaw) strings removed on both sides and ends trimmed
• 1 pc (80- to 150-gram) piece jicama (singkamas) peeled and julienned
• 1 pc medium cucumber peeled and sliced thinly
• 3 pcs salted eggs sliced into 6 to 8 pieces
• 3 pcs native or salad tomatoes sliced thinly

VINAIGRETTE

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 tbsp fish sauce (patis)
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsps finely chopped red onions
• 1 pc small bird’s eye chili (siling labuyo, optional)

Instructions

1. Blanch beans in a pot of boiling salted water. Before water boils again, remove beans and immediately plunge in a bowl of iced water.  Let rest for a few minutes; drain. (This will keep the beans green and crunchy.) Place in the refrigerator.
2. Immerse jicama in salted water for 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside.
3. Assemble the salad: Place beans on a platter. Top with drained jicama, cucumber, salted eggs, and tomatoes, making sure that all ingredients are evenly distributed. Cover and refrigerate.
4. Make the vinaigrette: Combine water and sugar in a saucepan.  Let boil until sugar melts. Remove from heat and let cool. Add vinegar, pepper, fish sauce, soy sauce, onions, and chili (if using) to the cooled syrup; mix until well combined. Season with more soy sauce, fish sauce, and pepper, if desired.
5. Drizzle vinaigrette over salad right before serving.

Check out other recipes HERE.