Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad

I need to emphatically declare that there is nothing more refreshing on a sweltering hot day than this delicious Vietnamese Chicken salad. Nor anything tastier or better for you. I always alter my recipe slightly from Nigella's in that I use 2 Lebanese cucumbers in place of the white cabbage and I used 1 monster sized carrot. Cucumber, of course is known for being cooling and I feel this adds substantially to the recipe's heat-beating properties. You can make this a few hours ahead and store in the fridge where it will be just perfect to eat when you are hungry.

I always double the quantities for the sauce and omit the oil. I don't feel like the taste suffers one jot without it but more of this perfectly balanced sauce can only be a good thing.

Vietnamese chicken and mint salad

For the dressing (this is for double the amount of dressing than what Nigella suggests)

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

• 1-2 chili, preferably a bird's eye chili, seeded and chopped finely

• 2 fat garlic gloves peeled and finely chopped

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 3 teaspoons rice vinegar

• 3 tablespoons lime juice

• 3 tablespoons fish sauce

For the Salad

• 1 medium onion finely sliced

• 2 medium sized Lebanese cucumbers shredded grated

• 1 large carrot grated

• 200g/7ozs cooked chicken breast, shredded or cut into fine strips

• fat bunch of mint, about 40g stemmed weight

• black pepper

Step 1 - In a bowl, combine the dressing ingredients and put aside for half an hour, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Step 2 - In a big bowl, mix the salad ingredients. Pour over the chili flecked dressing and toss very well-so that everything is combined and covered. Taste to see whether you need salt or pepper. Serve on a flat plate with maybe a bit more mint chopped on top

Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a starter.

Recipe adapted from Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson