After the other night's less than favorable results, I was hoping to have a better meal. I was really excited for the chicken and Napa cabbage salad because I really like salad and Asian flavors. While I got a pot of water boiling, Mike washed and prepared the produce. I mixed together the miso paste and water until it was smooth, Next, I made a dressing of vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil, salt and pepper, adding it to the cabbage, cucumber, and carrots. We let it marinate while we finished the rest of the recipe. Then, I heated up oil in a pan and cooked the chicken until it was lightly browned. I added in ginger and the white part of the scallions, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cooked another 2-3 minutes. I filled a bowl with ice water and set it aside. I boiled the asparagus for 2 minutes until it was bright green and softened and transferred it to the ice water. To the chicken, I added the soy sauce and miso water and cooked it about 2 minutes until the sauce had thickened. I turned off the heat and added in sesame oil. Finally, I added the chicken and sauce, asparagus, cilantro leaves, mint leaves, and a drizzle of olive oil to the marinated vegetables. We split the salad on two plates and garnished with scallions and cashews. The salad was really tasty. It had great flavors and even though I don't love cucumbers and asparagus, they were tolerable because the dressing was really good. This is definitely a meal I could see us making again in the future.

The New Austonian