Celebrate the start of the Beijing Olympics with this main-dish salad, a simple meal made with shiitake mushrooms, chicken, cashew nuts and an Asian dressing. It's perfect summer evening fare, warm or at room temperature.

Most supermarkets stock toasted sesame oil, which lends a nutty flavor. Steamed Chinese noodles can be found refrigerated in the produce department.

If you would prefer making the dish with ingredients on hand, angel hair pasta can be used in place of Chinese noodles, white vinegar diluted with a little water in place of rice vinegar, regular sesame or canola oil in place of toasted, walnuts in place of cashews and any sliced mushrooms in place of shiitake.

This meal contains 642 calories with 27 percent of calories from fat.

• Fred Tasker's wine suggestion: Toasted sesame oil calls for a toasty wine; try a California chardonnay.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Any type of cooked chicken can be used.

• Minced garlic can be found in jars in the produce section of the market.

• A quick way to slice scallions is to snip them with a scissors.

COUNTDOWN

• Place water for noodles on to boil.

• Mix sauce.

• Boil noodles.

• Make salad.

SHOPPING LIST

To buy: 1 bottle toasted sesame oil, 1 bottle rice vinegar, 1 package steamed Chinese noodles, ¾ pound cooked chicken breast meat, 1 red bell pepper, 1 small package shiitake mushrooms, 1 bag ready-to-eat romaine lettuce, 1 bunch scallions, 1 small package cashew nuts.

Staples: Low-sodium soy sauce, bottle minced garlic, salt, black peppercorns.

Linda Gassenheimer's latest book is The Portion Plan: How to Eat the Foods You Love and Still Lose Weight. Her website is dinnerinminutes.com.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@