Asian Style Pomelo Lettuce Salad Recipe -- Gluten Free, Vegan, Easy

Sometimes, a salad is really amazing. And sometimes, it just doesn't cut it for you. The other day I made myself a salad, and I couldn't bring myself to eat it. I just didn't enjoy it. I thought maybe my body was telling me to eat something other than salad, but I looked at the lettuce in the fridge, and decided I wanted a salad, just not the one that I had.

Instead, I made a salad with lettuce and pomelo, and once I started in that direction, I was thinking that I should definitely go in an Asian direction, and I added some more veggies that I had, topped it with a soy sauce based dressing and peanuts, and it really hit the spot. I don't think I ever had a salad quite like it before, but it'll definitely be a repeat in this house.

This recipe as written is gluten free, vegan, and allergy friendly unless you're allergic to peanuts. If you don't have any of these ingredients, feel free to leave some out of sub something, like grapefruit instead of the pomelo, tangerine instead of orange, iceberg lettuce instead of romaine, etc...  This would also be awesome with bean sprouts added.

While this isn't an official Thai recipe as far as I know, this recipe shares a lot of ingredients and a flavor profile with yam som o, Thai pomelo salad, so that's cool.

Asian Style Pomelo Lettuce Salad Recipe -- Gluten Free, Vegan, Easy

Ingredients:
2 cups pomelo
4 leaves romaine lettuce
1 orange
1 avocado
1 yellow orange or red pepper
1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos
1/8 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar or white vinegar would work)
1/4 cup oil (I used sunflower but any mildly flavored oil would work)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup toasted salted peanuts
Hot pepper flakes to taste
Cilantro (optional)

Instructions:
1. Peel the membrane off the pomelo segments. Peel and chop up your orange.

2. Chop up the rest of your veggies and avocado, and mix together with the pomelo.

3. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, oil, and sesame oil.

4. Pour onto the salad.

5. Mix in peanuts. Sprinkle with hot pepper flakes, and garnish with chopped cilantro.

6. Toss and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

While this tastes best fresh, I found this also tasted good the next day.

Have you ever made a similar salad? Does this look like a recipe you'd try? Are pomelos available where you live? Are they expensive or affordable?