This Chinese Spinach Salad is a hearty and delicious way to enjoy lots of fresh spinach.Adding tofu skin and peanuts makes it extra tasty and nutrient-dense!  The Art of the Chinese “Cold Dish”    Every year, I like to come up with one or two new “cold dishes” that can be served chilled or room temperature during the hotter months.In Chinese, these dishes are called liáng bàn cài (凉拌菜).

The best part is they require very little cooking and are tasty and refreshing!  (Last year’s liang ban recipe was my Spaghetti Squash Salad with Scallion Oil, one of my all time favorites!)  They’re a little bit like salads, but instead of starting with lettuce, they come in a variety of textures and ingredients from vegetables to chilled meats to mushrooms, peanuts, bean curd, and the list goes on.A New Way to Enjoy Spinach In Chinese cooking, spinach is usually stir-fried with garlic, oil, and salt, used as leafy greens in a soup or maybe tossed into a bowl of Dan Dan Noodles.  I have to admit, I am not a big fan of spinach, maybe because my mother forced me to eat it as a child.But lately I’ve been enjoying it blanched in this liang ban dish.

With spinach in season right now, you should give it a try!  The Tips AI Won’t Tell You:  Pay special attention to the dirt around the roots of the spinach.Rinsing and agitating the spinach a few times in a large basin of cold water will help dislodge the dirt.  I often se

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