Asian Inspired Salad with Marbled Tea Eggs

This is a simple salad recipe I came up with recently. It is refreshing and delicious, but requires a few steps.

Begin by making traditional Chinese tea eggs. You will need: 

4-5 whole eggs, 8 bags of black tea, 3 tbsp Chinese 5-spice, and 1/4 cup soy sauce.

Add enough water to a medium saucepan to plunge your eggs into. Now add all ingredients to the water and bring to a roaring boil. 

When the eggs have hard-boiled, remove from saucepan then crumble the shells by carefully rolling them around on all sides. Return the eggs to the tea sauce, reduce flame and let simmer for at least 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare a colorful medley of choice for your salad. I used purple cabbage, red bell pepper, carrot, onion, garlic, apple and toasted, ground almonds.

Once the tea eggs have cooked, remove them from the pan and carefully peel the shells way  (take care not to leave any broken shells behind). The eggs will have a gorgeous marbled look. Slice to your liking.

In a separate bowl, stir together a simple ginger-honey-soy dressing:
1/4 cup honey, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp ginger paste,  1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil.

Over a bed of mixed greens, add your medley of veggies, nuts and fruits and the sliced tea eggs. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve with dressing on the side.