By Jacob Ellenhorn, Co-Editor-in-Chief

Walking through Shalhevet during lunch period you are bound to see the same thing at each table: two or three kids eating school lunch, another with some sandwich or cold pizza, and then that one kid with the boring salad they made that morning. That boring salad often includes some roughly chopped green, the occasional onion or tomato, and a small, half-empty dressing container of Wishbone Robusto Italian.

But that salad does not need to be boring. In fact, it is quite easy to make that boring salad the star of the table.

A good salad needs a perfect balance of six things: something chewy, something crunchy, something sweet, something spicy, something salty, and of course greens. Boring salads at most include two or three things from the list. A good salad will have all six.

Most Thai dishes – things like Pad Thai and Panang for example – contain all six of these flavors and textures and the ingredients are not hard to find.  Get them into your kitchen and make this salad instead of the boring one.  Your friends at the lunch table will be envious.

Serves one.

Salad

1/2 a serving of spaghetti. Measure this by taking your middle finger and bending it into the crease between your index finger and thumb.

Vegetable oil

2 handfuls of spinach, washed and roughly chopped

1 handful of cherry tomatoes cut into halves

1/4 of a white onion chopped

1/8 cup blanched almonds

1/4 cup crunchy wonton noodles

1/8 cup canned mandarin oranges

Boil your spaghetti in salted water. When finished, drain and rinse with cold water to remove excess starch. Toss your pasta with a little vegetable oil to prevent it from clumping.

Put the pasta aside and grab your salad container. Place your first handful of spinach in the container, then place the spaghetti on top of the spinach. This will make it easier to toss.

Add the rest of the spinach, then add the tomatoes, chopped onion and mandarin oranges.

Place the almonds, and wonton noodles in a small sandwich bag and set it aside, adding it to the salad right before you eat it (this keeps them fresh and crunchy).

Dressing

2 tablespoons of peanut butter

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sriracha, a spicy Thai hot sauce that can be purchased at most kosher stores

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vinegar

1/2 tablespoon water

Place the peanut butter in a salad cruet. Place the cruet with the peanut butter into the microwave for 40 seconds, allowing the peanut butter to become liquified. Then add the rest of the ingredients and shake until they are incorporated into the peanut butter.

Pour the amount of dressing you would use on a salad in a dressing

container, leaving the extra in the cruet for another time.