Cucumber & Bell pepper salad in a soya and a mustard oil dressing

When I started with the A Salad A Day project, I had decided that I would not make any salad with cucumbers in it. As much as I love the freshness of a nice cucumber, it really is a boring vegetable when it comes to salad.

But when I thought of this dressing, I was tempted to try this.

I decided to spruce it up with some oven dried tomatoes I had from an earlier salad excursion. And some crunch from the bell peppers. But the star of this recipe is the dressing. Those of you who have tasted raw mustard oil before will understand what I say – Mustard oil is a bit of an acquired taste. But once you fall for it, you fall hard, don’t you?

Cucumber & Bell Pepper salad
Preparation – 15 min
Serves – 1
Level – Easy

Ingredients
Cucumber – 1, cubed
Bell pepper – 1, cut in inch sized pieces
Oven dried tomatoes – a handful , optional
Thai Basil – a couple of leaves
Za’tar powder – 1 Tsp
For the dressing
Soya sauce – 1 Tbsp
Mustard oil – 1 Tbsp
Rice wine vinegar – 1/2 Tbsp
Five spice powder – 1 Tsp
Salt – to taste

Instructions
Mix all the dressing ingredients together.
Plate up the rest of the ingredients, and pour the dressing over the vegetables.
Garnish with Za’tar and shredded basil leaves.