Of all the special occasion Sunday dinner kind of meals I make, my Thai wife has always loved roast beef the most. Well… she probably just likes the main event meal itself – but she loves the idea of leftover roasted beef and when we have any, she will always use it to make this very spicy Thai salad the next day.

It's the polar opposite of boring leftovers – I mean it's hard to call something boring when that first bite of rare roasted beef burns a spice fire across your tongue!

It's a cinch to make, taking not more than a couple of minutes and it's tasty enough to warrant planning ahead when buying a roast of beef…to make sure that you leave yourself plenty of leftovers just to make this salad.

Thai Spicy Leftover Roast Beef Salad

• About 1 lb of leftover roast beef (warm it up gently in the microwave or oven, but take care not to cook it)
• ¼ cup of thinly sliced onions
• 2 plum tomatoes, sliced into thin wedges
• 2 Tbls of finely minced garlic
• 3 or 4 green onions, chopped into ¼ inch sections
• 1/4 cup of cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup of mint leaves, removed from the sprigs
• 2 or 3 (or more to taste) Thai bird chilies, finely chopped
• 2 Tbls of sugar
• 1/3 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice
• ¼ cup of fish sauce
• 1 tsp of salt
• ¼ cup of minced white onion
• ½ cup of cucumber, sliced thinly

3 So Easy Steps

1. Mix together the salt, lime juice, sugar, garlic, finely minced onions, chilies and fish sauce and whisk well, to make an incorporated dressing.
2. Slice the warmed roasted meat into thin bite sized shavings and mix together with the dressing and all the other ingredients.
3. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more fish sauce, sugar, chili or lime juice as needed to balance the flavors.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice for a great spicy lunch the day after a roast beef dinner.

Like many Thai dishes, this can be put together in a few minutes and like many Thai dishes, this spicy salad tastes great! You also could make this salad to great effect with leftover steak (if there ever is such a thing as leftover steak…?)