This Vietnamese water spinach salad with shrimp and pork belly is a must try. It has a crunchiness from roasted peanuts and a different fish sauce salad dressing that I have never tried before.
A friend’s mom in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma made a large tray this salad and I had the honor of trying it at her grandson’s birthday potluck party in 2015. She was kind to give me detailed cooking directions and main ingredients. I just had to figure out the measurements for the sauce based on my memory of how it tasted. I am so glad I am bilingual and can communicate fluently with my elders since this mom only speaks Vietnamese. I will always remember the glow and excitement on her face when I approached her to compliment and ask her to teach me how to make this salad.
Ingredients:
3 bags of water spinach
2 limes
1 pound jumbo size shrimp or tiger shrimp
1.5 pound pork belly
2 liter water
1/2 cup fried shallots
1/2 cup crushed roasted peanuts
1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds




Salad dressing: multiply two times for this recipe
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoon Viet Huong fish sauce
2 Tablespoon sugar
3+ Thai chilies
1 teaspoon lime juice
Note: + add more to your preference.

Directions:


3. Squeeze one lime and reserve the juice in a bowl and set a side for the salad dressing. Cut the rest of the limes and put the wedges in a large bowl of water. Soak the split water spinach stems in this bowl for at least 30 minutes.

Mom would normally throw away the leaves but I don’t like to waste so I made a quick stir-fry water spinach with garlic dish.

Cook the shrimp in a skillet with one tablespoon of water and a pinch of salt. Cook the shimp until it is evenly colored. Shelled the shrimp and slice it in halves.

Boil the pork bell. Add enough water to cover the pork completely. Pork is cooked when you can poke through its skin with a chopstick or fork easily. Slice pork belly into small pieces.

6. Make the salad dressing: (multiply ingredients by two)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoon Viet Huong fish sauce
2 Tablespoon sugar
3+ Thai chilies
1 teaspoon lime juice

Transfer the water spinach stems from the colander into a large mixing bowl.

Add in the shrimp and pork belly.

Mix well. (I wore latex gloves.)

When you are ready to eat, top the salad with the fried shallots, sesame seeds, and crushed roasted peanuts to your preference. Drizzle in the fish sauce salad dressing mixture. Mix well and serve. Enjoy! The first time I tried to take a pictorial demo was when my little chef was just 23-months-old! The yellowing lighting was terrible so I finally had a chance to remake this pictorial with better lighting.





