Summer is salad season and if you are board with plain old lettuce, tomato and cucumber salads with ranch dressing or italian dressing, etc., then try this salad inspired by the flavours of your favourite Chinese takeout dish, kung pao chicken. The salad itself is pretty simple with lettuce (I like to use kale sometimes), chicken, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, green onions and peanuts but it's the tasty dressing that really makes this salad shine! The sichuan flavour inspired dressing starts out with the usual suspects including rice vinegar, oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and some sesame oil for that amazing aroma. The main focus of the dressing is of course the sichuan chili oil which is an oil that is infused with chilies and sichuan peppercorns where the chilies provide the spicy heat and the sichuan peppercorns add their signature mouth numbing effect in addition to a fabulous aroma. (You should be able to find the sichuan peppercorns at your local asian grocery store or you can order them online or you can just omit them.) The dressing is finished off with some sesame paste or peanut butter making it nice and thick and creamy! When you combine the tasty and spicy dressing with the cool and crunchy salad it's like a magical symphony of flavours and textures in your mouth! The next time you have a craving for kung pao chicken, try this salad instead; it's lighter, healthier and it can be made in just 15 minutes!
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