Vietnamese beansprout salad pickle, Dua Gia

Sometimes I write about food, as a complete amateur home cook and lately I have been craving a dish from my childhood, which I think my mom used to buy in jars from the store in the 1970's. It was a beansprouts with vegetables mix which she added to her own recipe for Chinese style crispy sweet n' sour pork with fried rice. Mom was pretty out there with her cuisine in the 70's, with an eclectic repertoire of various World foods, no fish fingers and baked beans for us!

I researched on the Internet and was so happy to find that the beansprout salad is called Dua Gia and is a Vietnamese side dish, usually served with other dishes such as pork belly and rice. I like to enjoy the salad with more vegetables to serve, a hard boiled egg, avocado slices, or Quorn veggie Turkey slices for a delicious, filling, very low calorie dish. There is currently media interest in the subject of restricting foods and calories, eating less wheat, meat and dairy, with the idea of living longer and suffering less chronic illness. I'm no expert, but I love a healthy salad! This is my simple version of the recipe. Feel free to adapt the quantities. Traditionally the recipe uses spring onions or scallions, but I only had a red onion! I added an egg, thinly sliced cucumber and a grind of black pepper to serve.

The veggies are raw, yet the brine gives them a slightly cooked, but still crisp appetising texture.

The salad looks lovely in the storage jars and is fun and so easy to make!

 

For the veg.

1 bag of supermarket beansprouts, about 370 grams, rinsed and picked over.

1 large carrot, finely sliced.

1 med red onion, finely sliced.

1 small red pepper, finely sliced.

For the brine.

2 cups of water.

1 cup of white clear vinegar.

1 tbsp salt.

1 tbsp sugar.

Method. In a pan, heat the brine ingredients to dissolve the salt and sugar. Leave to cool completely.

Prepare the vegetables, toss them together and store in a lidded container or into jars. Pour the cooled brine over the veg. If using a jar, fill to cover the veg, although the veg will shrink down slightly. The salad is ready to eat in a few hours, but is best if left overnight and will keep well for a couple days in the refrigerator.