Kangkong – Water Spinach Salad with Salted Eggs, Tomatoes and Honey Vinegar Dressing
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I made this Kangkong- Water Spinach Salad With Salted Eggs, Tomatoes and a Honey-Vinegar Dressing after a recent trip to Manila. I discovered this Filipino fascination with salads made of pako (fiddle head ferns) and “kangkong” also known as water spinach. Everywhere I went, the Pako Salad or else the Kangkong Salad was served as a starter at restaurants. At a lunch with well known Filipino food icon Ms. Glenda Barretto at her Via Mare restaurant, she mentioned that the customer requests for these types of salads was so high “our suppliers can’t keep up with the demand.”
In the absence of fiddle head ferns here in my suburban home in America, I used fresh spinach greens instead to make a salad. Filipino dishes often have a combination of salty and sweet together in one plate. So I tried to accomplish these flavors in this spinach salad.
Salted eggs in a Filipino salad are a mainstay and a must. Most Asian groceries have salted eggs in their refrigerated section. And when you combine the salty slices with the spinach leaves, tomatoes and red onion, then the contrasts are truly terrific.
Try this spinach side the next time you have Asian entrees on your menu. Mix the sweet honey-like dressing right before you dive into the greens. You will love it and wonder why you didn’t make this before.
Kangkong- Water Spinach with Salted Eggs and Tomatoes with Honey-Vinegar Dressing
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 cups kangkong (water spinach) washed, stems trimmed
- 2 whole large salad tomatoes, sliced
- 2 whole salted eggs, peeled, sliced hard-boiled, (from Asian markets)
- 1 whole medium-sized red onion, sliced
- 1/4 cup sweet rice wine, for dressing
- 1/4 cup ginger ale, for dressing
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 knob (1 inch) fresh ginger peeled, sliced thin, then minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 2 stalks scallion greens, chopped
Instructions
- Blanch the spinach in rapidly boiling water for 30 seconds. Dip the fresh spinach leaves for a few seconds, then take it out, drain and immerse quickly in ice cold water for 1 minute. Drain off any excess liquids. Dry spinach leaves on paper towels.
- In a salad bowl, place the blanched spinach.
- Arrange on top of the salad the tomatoes, red onion and salted egg slices. Garnish with chopped scallions. Cover and keep refrigerated till ready to serve.
- To make the salad dressing: Mix together in a non-reactive bowl the mirin, ginger ale, garlic, ginger, salt, black pepper and honey. Blend well. Cover and refrigerate till ready to be served. Serve the chilled salad dressing on the side.
- Cook's comments: Here in the States, I buy my salted eggs from the Asian supermarkets. The ones I find are not tinted red (like they are in the Philippines), but are in their regular white shells, preserved and packaged in plastic containers.These days, they are mostly made from chicken eggs. Once you get home, you should boil these salted eggs in water for 30 minutes and they are good to go. When cooked, peel and slice the boiled eggs. Each sliver gives off a sharp saltiness that goes well with ingredients of contrasting flavors.
- COLOR and COOK Food Coloring Book : Color, cook and share my original drawing of Kangkong (Water Spinach Salad) in my "COLOR and COOK Food Coloring Book" by Elizabeth Ann Quirino on Amazon.com. Relax and color unique Philippine cuisine drawings I created for you. CLICK here to buy my coloring book.
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Nutrition
Notes on Nutrition: The nutrition information provided in the recipe links is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and specific brands of ingredients used.
Copyright Notice: Hello, Friends! Please DO NOT LIFT OR PLAGIARIZE Asian in America recipes on this blog, my original recipes, stories, photos or videos. All the images and content on this blog are COPYRIGHT PROTECTED and owned by my media company Besa-Quirino LLC by Elizabeth Ann Quirino. This means BY LAW you are NOT allowed to copy, scrape, lift, frame, plagiarize or use my photos, essays, stories and recipe content on your websites, books, films, television shows, videos, without my permission. If you wish to republish this recipe or content on media outlets mentioned above, please ASK MY PERMISSION, or re-write it in your own words and link back to my blog AsianInAmericaMag.com to give proper attribution. It is the legal thing to do. Thank you. Email me at [email protected]
This looks gorgeous and love the salted eggs…I’ve never had them!
Thanks, Nelly! I love the salted eggs. I can’t have this salad without it. So nice of you to stop by:-)
Hmm it sounds awesome. I’ve never tried salted eggs. How are they cooked salty? The eggs are peeled and then cooked in salted broth or something? Thanks for introducing the typical lunch salad. It’s probably equivalent to some common salad Japanese restaurant serves. I first need to check out the salty egg!
Hi Nami, the salted egg is hardboiled and soaked in a brine solution for a few weeks. In Asia, we learn to preserve a lot of foods, from meat, fish and even eggs. Originally, they used duck’s eggs for a larger size and a harder, tougher shell that doesn’t crack easily. But now what’s available in Asian groceries are the regular chicken eggs that are salted. It has a delicious salty flavor, and the egg whites are more firm. We can make it too, but it’s too long to do. So I just buy it.