veggie and brown rice salad with peanut butter hoisin dressing

Confession. I love peanut butter. I mean, I liked it growing up, but lately it's like I've discovered it anew. Besides eating it on toast, or slathered on bananas, I'm putting it in sauces and dressings at least once weekly. Maybe twice. We are going through jars of peanut butter like most people go through a half-gallon of milk.

My current favorite version of peanut sauce is combined with hoisin, a plum-soy Asian condiment. While you can make this dressing with soy sauce, the hoisin takes the peanut butter to a whole other level. It makes every salad exciting-- even ones with humble ingredients like rice and cabbage.

What's great about this meal is that it can be assembled in 15 minutes if you have precooked rice. Which, I highly suggest you get.

veggie and brown rice salad with peanut-hoisin dressing

2 cups cooked brown rice (cook it a few days ahead and keep in the fridge, or I suggest Trader Joe's precooked brown rice -- all you do is microwave it for 60 seconds.)
2 cups shredded cabbage (I like purple)
2 avocados, diced
1 cup shredded carrots (use a grater, or even buy them preshredded to save extra time)
1 cup kale, leaves torn into bite-size pieces
sesame seeds as garnish (optional)

dressing:
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
2 tbs hoisin sauce**
3 tbs water
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbs rice vinegar
1/2 tsp siracha sauce (or more to taste, depending on how spicy you want it)

whisk together dressing ingredients until smooth.

toss dressing with veggies and rice.
garnish with sesame seeds.
keeps for 1 to 2 days, covered, in the fridge

**don't have hoisin sauce? use soy sauce and and add 1/2 tbs brown sugar and half the amount the water

Eat up.

xo, erika