Easy summer Asian supper–just use your Cuisinart!
Do you own a Cuisinart? Did you get one for your wedding and it is still in the box? From 10 years ago?
I’m going to admit that I didn’t use mine much until a few years ago. I started paying attention to others who used theirs, mainly my mother and sister-in-law. These ladies kept theirs out on the counter, instead of tucked away in a cabinet, and used it at every opportunity to slice, dice or mix things.
Here are a couple of recipes to get you started with getting acquainted (or re-acquainted) with your Cuisinart:
Lettuce wraps and Asian Cucumber Salad
These recipes use a chopping blade and a slicing disc with their appropriate lids for the Cuisinart. So go ahead and get these out of the packaging and click here if you need an instruction manual refresher:
Slicing disc:
The slicing disc is the disc on the far left in the picture below.
First we will use the slicing disc. **Warning–this is highly addictive. You will be slicing everything up in your vegetable drawer soon.**
Asian Cucumber Salad
- 1 tbsp Sesame oil (buy in Asian section of market)
- 2 tbsp Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar (buy in Asian section of market)
- 2 large English cucumbers, peeled
- 1/2 vidalia or sweet onion
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
Peel cucumbers and using the slicing disc, slice the cucumbers. (It takes about .25 seconds). Then place cucumbers in a medium size salad bowl.
Take 1/2 onion and place in the Cuisinart, using the same slicing disc.
Combine onion and cucumber with 2 tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar and a few drizzles of sesame oil. Add sesame seeds, salt and pepper to taste and let it sit and marinate while you make dinner.
Rinse out your Cuisinart container bowl and place the chopping blade inside. The next recipe is an exercise in the chopping blade.
Chopping blade:
Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 lbs. ground chicken
- 3 carrots peeled and cut into three parts (you have to cut the long vegetables up to in order for them to be uniformly chopped)
- 2 celery stalks cut into three parts
- 1/2 onion cut into three or four smaller parts
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- soy sauce
- Paul Newman's Sesame Ginger dressing
- cilantro
- green onion
Instructions
- In Cuisinart, add carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Using the chopping blade, pulse until it is very finely chopped, almost a chunky applesauce or salsa texture. In a dutch oven, heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add two pounds ground chicken and brown. When almost brown, add the vegetable mixture from the Cuisinart. Cook this down for about five minutes or longer, until vegetables are cooked through and soft. At this point, add a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, a couple tablespoons of Paul Newman's Sesame Ginger dressing, salt and pepper to taste. Optional to add hot sauce at this point for a spicier dish-I use Sriracha.
- Take a head of iceberg lettuce and cut the core out. In a colander in the sink, fill the hole up with cold water. Let sit for a minute, then turn upside down to drain out all water in the sink. When this is drained sufficiently, place entire head on a plate lined with paper towels.
- Garnish with a handful of chopped cilantro and chopped green onions. Also optional to dip your lettuce wraps in a ramekin of the Sesame Ginger dressing.
Nutrition
Here is a pictorial review:
Place chicken mixture in a bowl next to the lettuce. Let your dinner guests serve themselves, just like a restaurant. Garnish with cilantro and chopped green onion.
Serve with Asian Cucumber Salad.