Rainbow Chard Tea Leaf Salad

There is a restaurant here in Oakland called Burma Superstar. I think their best dish is the Tea Leaf Salad. The ingredients are simple: Fresh tea leaves from Burma (yes, they do go to Burma regularly to pick them up), fried garlic, peanuts and freshly squeezed lime juice. Its absolutely delicious! Crunchy, spicy and tangy it is the perfect way to start off a meal.

Our friend Lindsay, who is a dietitian, loves this salad and spend many a long hour perfecting it. She was gracious enough to share it with me, so I felt it is only right to share it on this blog. To make it healthier, this recipe calls for rainbow chard.

This salad is delicious, but not very filling. I suggest having it with fish or another protein source.


Ingredients
3 cups rainbow chard, sliced into thin ribbons (no stalks)
7-8 tablespoons garlic, minced and fried in 1 tablespoon of peanut oil or sesame seed oil
3.5 tablespoons shallots. sliced thin
2 tablespoons+1 teaspoon of Twinning's brand Earl Gray loose leaf black tea leaves
3-4 tablespoons peanut oil or sesame seed oil
1 cup of yellow lentils, washed, picked over, and cooked in 2 cups of water
4 teaspoons chopped Indian green chilies, with seeds (or 3/4 cup jalapenos, canned or from a jar, rinsed and diced)
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 cup peanuts, dry roasted then chopped
1.5 cup cherry tomatoes, each sliced in half (or 1 regular tomato, diced)
2/3 cup sesame seeds
Juice from 1 lime
Fish sauce (4 tsp)
3/4 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

Procedure


With a sharp knife cut and remove the leafy part of the rainbow chard. Cut the stalks into bite sized  bits and reserve for making vegetable stock later. Stack the leafy part of the chard on top of each other in a single layer.









Tightly roll the chard layers and then cut. You should have several ribbons of chard.

Pour 3 tablespoons of peanut oil all over the black tea in a large bowl. Mix with your fingers to get the oil to soak into the tea leaves.

Heat 1 tablespoons of peanut oil in a wok or skillet. Pan fry the garlic until it is golden brown and crunchy, about 4-5 minutes. DO NOT BURN!

In a separate pan, dry toast the sesame seeds until they turn a nice golden brown color. Again, do not burn.

Add the garlic and sesame seeds to the bowl with the soaked tea leaves.

Add the chard, cooked lentils, green chilies, shredded carrots, peanuts and cherry tomatoes. Juice 1 lime and add that to the mix. Gently mix all of that together.

Add the fish sauce. The fish sauce makes this dish tasty and savory, and complements the jalapenos. You can add fish sauce to taste, but I like around 4 teaspoons.

Finally, add the shredded coconut.

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