Wood Ear Mushroom Asian Salad Recipe
This popular salad is there in many Chinese and Korean menus. You can make it quite easily at home.
Prep Time25 mins
Cook Time5 mins
Refrigeration Time1 hr
Total Time30 mins
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 4 cups wood ear mushrooms rehydrated
- 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 red chili pepper chopped
- 1 tbsp soy sauce light
- 1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- First, you will need to rehydrate the dried mushrooms. 1 cup of dried mushrooms will approx yield 4 cups of rehydrated wood ear mushrooms.
- In a medium-sized pot, cook the mushrooms in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Turn the heat off and let it steep for 15-20 minutes or until soft.
- Drain and rinse well in cold water. Let it dry completely. You can also use a salad spinner to remove the excess water. Trim off the hard stems, if any. You can keep it as it is or cut into smaller pieces if you prefer.
- In a large salad bowl, add the garlic, chili peppers, soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, and sesame oil. Blend well. Now, add the cooked wood ear mushrooms and toss to coat it all over.
- Refrigerate it for an hour so that the mushrooms are marinated. Toss it once or twice during this time to make sure the sauce does not settle at the bottom.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and sesame seeds. Serve cold as an appetizer or a side dish.
Notes
You can reduce the number of red chili peppers if you don't want it spicy. You can also deseed it to reduce the spiciness.
If you do not have Chinese black vinegar on hand, you can add rice vinegar or rice wine vinegar instead. Chinese black vinegar has a malty, smoky flavor; so you can also try adding balsamic vinegar but omit the sugar to avoid the salad from becoming too sweet.