spicy celery salad

so i usually use this for blanched celery salad but it's awesome on a lot of crunchy veggies - cucumbers, bell peppers, etc

what you'll need:

- sugar

- salt

- chili oil or chili crisp (lao gan ma is the og but use whatever you have)

- chinese black vinegar (if you don't have this rice vinegar or balsamic can work too)

- msg (IT'S NOT BAD FOR YOU)

- toasted sesame oil

- soy sauce

- vegetable of choice (for celery i usually use ~4 ribs, for cucumber this is good for 1 regular sized cucumber or 4 persian/mini cucumbers)

steps (i'm including some measurements but i usually just eyeball everything cause it's really about the ratios)

1. prep your veggies 

- for celery i chop into bite sized chunks, boil on high heat for 30 seconds, and then submerge in ice water to blanch. it should be a bright green color. i usually make the sauce while the celery is chilling

- for cucumber you can chop into slices of any kind, the thinner the more it'll absorb the sauce or you can cut accordion style using two chopsticks (a lil more work but looks awesome). once the cucumber is cut, let sit after liberally dousing it with salt.

2. combine 1 tbsp chili crisp (use a little less if you like less spicy), 1/2 tbsp black vinegar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, and 1/2 tbsp sesame oil in whatever container you want to eat it out of (i like to use tupperware so i can shake the veggies and dressing together)

4. add sugar to taste, usually around 1 tbsp

5. add pinch of msg and pinch of salt (1/8 tsp). mix everything well so that all the sugars/salts are dissolved

6. if you're using cucumber, rinse the salt off and add the sauce, let sit for a little bit or eat right away. if you're using celery remove it from the ice bath and add sauce.

enjoy!!:) a lovely lil snack 4 u