Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for a summer crispy rice salad with tofu, lime and herbs | The new vegan

A summery rice salad with a crispy south-east Asian twist

It’s been a salad kind of summer so far. Hot days spent camping with friends, impromptu picnics in the park, afternoons watching the tennis, reading in the garden with Test Match Special on in the background. Food has had to fit around summer life and, of all the meals, this has been one of the best. It has summer etched into the heart of it in that it’s fresh, flavourful and good for feeding a crowd. It’s a (very) wild take on Laotian crispy rice salad and is abundant with herbs, garden vegetables and, crucially, there’s barely any “cooking” involved at all.