This week – THAI BASIL BEEF WITH PEANUT SALSA (p. 213)
My Asian food cravings are still going strong (nope, not pregnant, just hungry…), so this week we tried the Thai Basil Beef dish and, to be honest, even before I read the description, Tieghan had me at “Peanut Salsa”…
Ingredients –
- Rice Noodles
- Ground Beef
- Fresh basil leaves
- Limes
- Salted peanuts
- Fresno peppers
- Onions
- Sesame Oil
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Carrots
- Thai sweet chili sauce
- Low-Sodium soy sauce
- Mint leaves
Difficulty level –
I prepped the veggies beforehand, so that wasn’t too bad when it came time to assemble things but it did require putting the different ingredients into various bowls, so the clean up was longer than I like on weeknights… In terms of the actual process of making the meal, in my opinion, this is another beginner level dish. The only “criticism” I would make is that once you start cooking you do have to stay by the stove the whole time. There’s only about 5 minutes between each step and you need to be prepping for the next stage so not much time to chase after (I mean… “attend to”) the kids while making this.
Price –
I only had the sesame oil, soy sauce, carrots and onions on hand, so I spent approximately $40 on this dish. I will say, however, that there was quite a bit leftover so Paolo and I were each able to get a second meal from this recipe.
Things I Googled While Making this Recipe –
- Different types of rice noodles? There was about 5 different packs of noodles in the grocery store and they all said “rice noodles”!
- What are fresno peppers? Similar in look to the jalapeño peppers but with less heat.
Alterations to the Recipe –
The ingredients are pretty straightforward for this one so there wasn’t much to change. The only substitute I made was with the noodle size – the picture in the cookbook shows a thinner noodle but I opted for the large noodle and don’t regret it (it soaked up the flavours perfectly!).
Verdict –
I have an unexplainable desire to change my verdict from my past reviews just to be different but I can’t – this is again 100% a make-again dish. The recipe was delicious when eaten fresh but just as good (Paolo said it was better) reheated the next day. Plus, in addition to extras, there was lots of peanut salsa leftover which I mixed in with some plain chicken breast and rice for a tastier lunch during the week.
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