Polynesian Salad with Curry Dressing

[veg-mama-n.o.l.a.]

  I LOVE THIS SALAD! And let me tell you, I am a very finicky eater when it comes to salad. I made a fabulous dinner out of this salad, Craig's Dhal, and the naan recipe by Greg R.  Delicious! And I am pretty impressed that you figured out the recipe to the dressing at the restaurant by taste. It is definatly restaurant quality, better than most in my opinion!

[müntberry]

This salad is SO amazing. Eight people out of eight loved it, and I can't wait to make another batch all for myself!! Thank you!

[oktokrewl]

It's true! This salad is to die for! OMG i never eat the same thing for lunch & dinner, but i couldnt make this fast enough to eat for dinner too haha.. All of the sweet fruits mixed w/ the veggies and the delicious curry-garlic-ginger-sweet/salty dressing omgomgomg.. so good.. i wish i wasnt full... i would totally eat another bowl hehehe..

i added 2 things to it.. the recipe said it would be amazing w/ coconut.. its true..it is.. trust me.. fresh shredded coconut is good on anything tho and i added a chopped green onion.. also i dont have access to walnuts, so i used peanuts.. if they are ok for thai food, then they are ok for polynesian food.. and for sure they are ok for me hehe

everyone in the whole world should eat this salad all the time every day forever.. it would most likely bring about world peace.. yes..

oh yeah i ate the last half of both salads with some sriracha.. spicy addiction is the best..

[Allychristine]

I've been planning on making this for Friday (for a visitor), and I'm glad it has a rave okt. review!

[oktokrewl]

oh yeah AC.. your guest will def. like this.. its such an interesting (and delicious!) combo of flavors..

i made the dressing the night before so that all the flavors can meld, and like the recipe says it is enough for several servings.. i would say between 6-8 (depending on how much dressing you like & i like alot)

but the first time i made it i just poured the sauce on top.. it was really tasty, but it didnt look very pretty.. the 2nd time i made it i mixed the lettuce with the dressing, put it in the bowl, then topped that with all the other veggies and raisins.. then i mixed the bananas in the dressing and put them on, and then i mixed the peanuts w/ the coconut and the dressing and sprinkled that around.. it made it pretty and the flavor was much more evenly distributed.. if you want to take the time to make a pretty presentation i say dress everything first and then arrange it.. but i am crazy and take a ridiculous amount of time making food look pretty hehe

[Allychristine]

Great advice! I have a question. I'm planning on making the banana black beans (I know you love these too-they are so good!), coconut rice, this salad, some baked tofu, and guac and chips........since I"m making the banana black beans, should I leave the banana out of the salad? I don't want the meal to be too banana-y...but it seems like banana is a main ingredient in this salad. I'm also leaving out raisins b/c we don't really like them. What do you think???

[oktokrewl]

this salad is really good cuz of the mix of sweet fruit contrasted with the veggies and the dressing.. i really think it would be missing something without the banana.. i guess if you really want to leave it out, then maybe you could sub another tropical fruit like mango or papaya or something.. but i love bananas and i say you can never have enough

also, the raisins are a really nice addition, but if you dont like them i suggest adding some other dried fruit.. currants are very similar to raisins, but sometimes hard to find.. i would suggest either craisins, or if not those, then maybe dried dice pineapple or mango (considering you dont use mango as a sub for the banana).. the raisins and bananas are the sweet accent to the crisp yummy veggi-ness of the carrots, cucumber and celery, and i really think this need at least 2 different sweet flavors to balance it all out and make it amazing..

but no i dont think the banana black beans and this salad are too much banana.. you are making enough other flavors that i think everything would just complement each other very nicely...

oh and you HAVE to take a pic of this meal.. it sounds fantastic!

[Allychristine]

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll switch it up a bit..but still try to keep the same "flavor profile." Maybe I'll add an apple to the salad. It will all depend if we go to the store again before Friday. If we do ..I'll buy some dried fruits! I will take pics, thanks! 

[Allychristine]

I forgot to take a picture of the salad with dressing! I have some left...so I'll try to get a pic. I added dried cranberries instead of raisins, used pecans, carrot, cucumber, celery, and the banana. The dressing is fabulous! I had to add some water to get mine the right consistency..b/c I was just adding oil without measuring. I loved it though!

Here's a picture of my whole picnic...and you can see the salad...kind of...

[mrslube]

I was browsing recipes for a mock tuna recipe to make a sandwich with for lunch when I stumbled upon this (and I'm quite glad that I did). I made a lot of tweaks, in that, instead of adding bananas to the salad and using apple in the dressing, I chopped the apple for the salad and put the banana in my dressing (I only had frozen bananas). Also, I'm a spice fiend, so I put 2 cloves of garlic and unmeasured (large) amounts of curry and ginger in the food processor. I didn't use anywhere near that much olive oil either. This could easily constitute a meal for three, hungry people, so I'm not sure why it's down as serving one. All and all, I give this 4.5/5.

[NoIllusions]

Hey...what brand of olive oil do you guys  use??  My bf complains the one I use is  too strong for a salad dressing.

[berryraw]

I thought the dressing sounded yummy and it did not disappoint.  I used some natural unsweetened applesauce in place of the apple, used 2 cloves of garlic, and reduced the amount of oil to 1/4 cup and used water for the remaining 3/4 cup of liquid.  Delicious and different dressing:)

[eleanorbabyy]

Wow, this recipe is phenomenal! I almost didn't make it because the ingredients list was so simple, but after reading all the rave reviews, I decided to go for it, and I'm so glad I did! I made it just for me (but I wanted a lot of the dressing because from the reviews it seemed to be the star of the recipe), so I more or less thirded the dressing ingredients (except I used only 1 Tbs oil and 4 water), and added a little allspice. The dressing is so nice and creamy and it really tied everything together. Oh, and def add the coconut! yummmm! A new staple I think

[eleanorbabyy]

Wow, this recipe is phenomenal! I almost didn't make it because the ingredients list was so simple, but after reading all the rave reviews, I decided to go for it, and I'm so glad I did! I made it just for me (but I wanted a lot of the dressing because from the reviews it seemed to be the star of the recipe), so I more or less thirded the dressing ingredients (except I used only 1 Tbs oil and 4 water), and added a little allspice. The dressing is so nice and creamy and it really tied everything together. Oh, and def add the coconut! yummmm! A new staple I think

oh i also chopped up 1/2 an apple to go in the salad in addition to the dressing, which i think was nice and added more texture...and i grated my carrots to have more variety since there were so many chunky things. haha tmi? maybe but i'm bored