Yusheng - the Malaysian Chinese New Year salad!

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all all those celebrating Chinese New Year! We say goodbye to the year of the dragon, and say hello to the year of the snake!


My husband needs to travel to Malaysia quite a lot and he told me about this traditional salad celebration he gets involved in when he is over there. It is known as Yusheng (or yee sang), which translates to Prosperity Toss.

This amazing salad has its ingredients chosen very carefully as each ingredient has a different meaning and if you ask me, it doesn’t sound all that bad healthwise either!


The base of the dish contains capsicum, chilli, jellyfish, sun-dried oranges, red pickled ginger and turnips. These make the base ingredients. Those eating the salad then proceed to add ingredients to build the salad:

• The raw fish is added (usually this is salmon, but traditionally wolf herring was used), symbolising abundance and excess through the year. 
• Pomelo or lime is added to the fish, adding luck and auspicious value. 
• Pepper is then dashed over in the hope of attracting more money and valuables. 
• Oil is then poured out, circling the ingredients and encouraging money to flow in from all directions. 
• Carrots are added indicating blessings of good luck. 
• Shredded green radish is placed symbolising eternal youth. 
• Shredded white radish is added for prosperity in business and promotion at work.

The condiments are finally added:

• First, peanut crumbs are dusted on the dish, symbolizing a household filled with gold and silver. 
• Sesame seeds quickly follow symbolising a flourishing business. 
• Deep-fried flour crisps in the shape of golden pillows is then added with wishes that literally the whole floor would be filled with gold.

Once put together, all the diners at the table stand up and on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying various auspicious wishes out loud. The higher the toss, the more prosperous the year!

What a fun way to start the new year! :)

Rosy Coleslaw

My rose coloured coleslaw... I got the original recipe from a thermomix party, this stuff tastes awesome and is vegan friendly!

Chop up 1 apple, 1 carrot, 1 beetroot, 2 spring onions (or half a red onion), and half a bunch of coriander. You can add other veg if you like, I added a capsicum to this batch, but have done it with spinach before as well. 
Mix it with the juice of half a lemon, 2 tablespoons of tahini, a good dash of olive oil and pepper to taste. 
This is a great side to barbeques and meats. The apple takes the bite out of the onion but mixes well with the coriander to make it taste very fresh. The beetroot and carrot add earthy flavours, but its not overpowering.

Truly, this one is pinkishly delish! :)

My favourite summer salad - mango mint nom nom

This combination of flavours has to be my all time favourite summer salad and is very popular amongst my family and friends. The best part? It's really super easy to make!

Toast some pine nuts in a fry pan with a little oil. Watch them carefully - they go from nicely toasted to burnt very quickly. When they start to smell fragrant, toss them around to brown both sides. Remove from heat when cooked and allow them to cool on a plate.

Slice a mango, wash spinach leaves, tear up mint leaves, chop up a capsicum and combine with the pine nuts. add some cracked pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and toss. The flavours of the fruit and vegies are so strong, a potent dressing isn't needed.

Don't feel obliged to stay with just these ingredients - depending on what is in the fridge, I may add extras - spring onions, avocado, cucumber and sundried tomatoes have all made guest appearances to the salad.

The mango and mint hit is so refreshing and summery, it is great with barbeques and grilled fish or meats.

Want some cracked pepper on that?

Black pepper – Piper nigrum. It lives on our kitchen table next to salt and adds a deliciously spicy (or you could say peppery!) flavour to our food. But how much you actually know about it? This week, I will be explaining a little bit more about this spice to you in regards to its benefits to our health.

A short history of pepper: Pepper is thought to be originated from India where is has been used in traditional Indian medicine (Ayurvedic medicine) for thousands of years. In India it is used as a home remedy as a powder or in a decoction (brewed with hot water) for relief from sore throats, throat congestion and coughs.

It was one of the most highly regarded trade goods within Asia, and it was known as ‘black gold’ and was often used in place of money. Only the rich people of ancient Greece could afford to use it, and black peppercorns were found stuffed in the nostrils of Rameses II. Be grateful that we can readily buy this spice! 

Pepper was one of the medicines which were allowed to be carried by Buddhist monks. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) uses pepper in patterns of cold, as it is energetically warming and stimulates a warming flow of energy to the body, particularly in the abdomen.  It is used as a diaphoretic (helps promote sweating) when people have colds and its hot pungent flavour benefits the lungs and protect against colds and flus.

It is also used to help treat patients with diarrhoea – crack 6-8 peppercorns into freshly boiled water and allow it to steep for 10 minutes. It really works! It can also be used for bowel pains in a congee (a simple rice soup which is easily digested and nourishing when you are debilitated).

'There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!' Alice said to herself, as well as she could for sneezing. — Alice in Wonderland (1865). Pepper has been associated with causing people to sneeze heavily, why is that? Pepper contains a constituent known as piperine, which is thought to be the main culprit for the sneezing, the spicy quality to pepper and its other amazing uses. Piperine has been found to have a protective effect upon liver cells and also increases the absorption of getting nutrients into the body.

Black pepper also contains some important vitamins and minerals, including vanadium, chromium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron and vitamin K. So make sure you put some cracked pepper on your vegies to get the most out of their goodness!

There are different coloured peppercorns around, are they all the same?

Black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe drupes (fruit) of the pepper plant. They are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The drupes are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer.

White pepper actually comes from the same plant as black peppercorns, but these peppercorns have been allowed to fully ripen before having the black outer husks removed. White peppercorns have more piperine than black, but a much milder flavour.

Green pepper, like black, is made from the unripe drupes. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a way that retains the green color, such as treatment with sulfur dioxide, canning or freeze-drying.

Orange or red pepper usually consists of ripe red pepper drupes preserved in brine and vinegar. Ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same colour-preserving techniques used to produce green pepper.

Pink peppers are from a completely different plant, the  Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle or or its relative the Brazilian pepper tree, Schinus terebinthifolius.

Although a rainbow peppermill can look pretty, stick to black or white peppercorns to reduce your intake of chemically treated foods.

So how do we use pepper? It can be used ground or cracked on savoury dishes, either during the cooking process or upon serving. How much you add is up to you and how much spice you can handle on and in your food. Soups, salads, vegies, meats, dips, fish, sandwiches, eggs... all get a new flavour when you add a few turns of the pepper mill to them!

-Laura x