This Simple Shredded Salad Is Endlessly Flexible

This recipe is part of our series on fùhé wèi (复合味), Sichuan’s 20+ complex flavors. For more details about this flavor combination, along with other recipes that exemplify this profile, visit our Hongyou Wei index page. (Other fuhe wei combinations can be found through the menu.)

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One of the Sichuanese recipes I come back to more than almost any other when I cook for myself is a simple vegetable and tofu salad tossed in a vibrant chili oil dressing. This style of dish requires minimal cooking and comes together in under 20 minutes. Depending on what is in my fridge, my salad might feature cucumber, radish and carrots; other times, I might add some cooked chicken breast instead of pressed tofu sheets. However I do it, I’m essentially making a variation on a Sichuan classic: three-sliver salad in chili oil (hóngyóu sānsī; 红油三丝). 

This dish is a quintessential example of hóngyóu wèi (红油味), or red oil flavor. One of Sichuan’s official flavor combinations, or fùhé wèi (复合味), the hongyou wei profile centers around chili oil, an indispensable part of Sichuan’s pantry. To make dishes with this flavor profile, you whisk homemade chili oil with soy sauce, sugar and salt (and sometimes other ingredients, like sesame oil) to create a flavor described as “spicy, fragrant, salty, umami, with a sweet aftertaste.” Drizzle the resulting sauce over vegetables or meat, which are often served cold or at room temperature, or over warm dishes like dumplings.

Compared with many other regional Chinese cuisines, Sichuan cuisine boasts an exceptionally rich selection of cold dishes, or liángcài (凉菜). These dishes are everywhere, from humble neighborhood eateries to elegant banquet restaurants to the family dinner table. At banquets in particular, the selection of liangcai can rival the selection of hot dishes, with as many as a dozen beautifully presented cold dishes served to begin the meal.

Sichuan chefs combine an impressive range of ingredients, colors, knife skills, cooking techniques and, above all, layered flavors to create a varied spread of cold dishes. Many of the region’s fuhe wei are used in these dishes, including hongyou wei, málà wèi (麻辣味, spicy and numbing flavor), suànní wèi (蒜泥味, mashed garlic flavor), guài wèi (怪味, strange flavor), xiánxiān wèi (咸鲜味, salty savory flavor), jiāomá wèi (椒麻味, fresh Sichuan pepper flavor) and yúxiāng wèi (鱼香味, fish-fragrant flavor). I once dined at a contemporary fine-dining Sichuan restaurant in Chengdu where the opening course featured nine exquisite small cold plates showcasing local bamboo shoots, beef tripe, fish maw, braised pork hock and other delicacies, each dressed in a different signature flavor. 

Among these flavor profiles, hongyou wei is perhaps the most common way to dress cold dishes—and it’s certainly the most eye-catching. Walk into almost any Sichuan restaurant, and you are likely to find classics such as red-oil pork ears (hóngyóu ěrpiàn, 红油耳片) and red-oil chicken (hóngyóu jīkuài, 红油鸡块) or just a selection of vegetables and tofu tossed in this vibrant dressing. Some restaurants are so generous with the sauce that the ingredients seem almost to float in a shimmering pool of red oil. 

While hongyou dishes can be built around a single main ingredient, such as shredded bamboo shoots or pressed tofu, Sichuan chefs also love combining three contrasting ingredients into a single dish known as san si (三丝), or three slivers. The interplay of different colors, textures and flavors makes these cold dishes fun to eat. Hongyou sansi is also a popular vegetarian filling for filled flatbreads (guōkuī, 锅盔) and spring rolls with wheat dough wrappers (chūnjuǎn, 春卷). 

Sansi can translate to a wide variety of combinations, beyond the tofu salad shown above. In Sichuan cuisine, hongyou sansi traditionally includes shredded chicken or pork intestines, as well as crunchy vegetables like bamboo shoots, carrots, radish and/or celtuce. Beyond these classic choices, there’s plenty of room for creativity. Cucumber, kohlrabi, bell peppers and celery all work beautifully, and I often see sansi made with mung bean glass noodles, shredded kelp, wood ear mushrooms and/or pressed or seasoned tofu.

My recipe here is essentially a vegetable and tofu salad. It includes cucumber, carrot and pressed tofu sheets (known as bǎiyè dǒufu, 百叶豆腐), which are easy to find in Berlin where I live and offer a nice mix of colors. That said, the instructions below are really just a formula; it is highly adaptable to whatever ingredients you have on hand. The key is just to cut all the ingredients into uniformly thin slivers. Not only does this create an elegant presentation but it also ensures that the different ingredients mix evenly and quickly absorb the dressing.

Making Sichuan Chili Oil for a Vegetable and Tofu Salad

Chili oil is so ubiquitous in my kitchen that I sometimes forget my introduction to it was entirely through Sichuan cooking. To achieve a vibrant hongyou wei dish at home, you have to start where every Sichuan chef starts: with the oil itself. The goal in a Sichuan-style chili oil is an oil that is glossy red, highly fragrant and only moderately spicy.

In both restaurant and home kitchens, chili oil is largely homemade. The Mala Market has published a few different methods for making chili oil in the past, including Kathy’s Aromatic Sichuan Chili Oil, which includes flavoring oil with lots of aromatics and then straining it before adding it to roasted ground chilies in stages, and Taylor’s “Making Chili Oil the Easy Way,” which involves flavoring the oil with shallot and ginger, then pouring all of it over the chili flakes. 

My version is more straightforward than either of those methods and involves a twist: I skip the spices and aromatics, but I mix the chili flakes with cold cooked oil to prevent burning, then I pour the oil over chili flakes in two separate additions, at two different temperatures, which brings out different aromas in the chilies. 

I learned this technique a few years ago, when I had the privilege of watching a family friend cook in his small farmhouse restaurant kitchen in northeastern Sichuan. This chef uses roasted rapeseed oil (càizǐyóu, 菜籽油), the default cooking oil in Sichuan, and he heats it in a massive wok, testing the temperature by ladling a thin stream of hot oil into the damp, ground chili flakes to check the sizzle. (If it’s the right temperature, it should sizzle immediately, making small bubbles, but not burn the chili flakes).

After the oil has reached the correct temperature, he adds some of it to the ground chilies (which are coated in a protective layer of cold oil), then lets the remaining oil cool a bit before adding it to the mixture. Adding oil this way—in two or three additions at different temperatures—is a common practice recommended by Sichuan chefs. Research shows that adding hot oil in stages helps create a more balanced and layered aroma profile. The first pour at high heat (410°F / 210°C) develops roasted, nutty aromas and extracts the chili’s vibrant red color; the second pour (350°F / 180°C) builds deeper, richer flavors; and the final pour at a lower temperature (300°F / 150°C) brings out brighter citrus and herbal notes.

My method simplifies this procedure into just two pours, starting at a slightly lower (more home kitchen-friendly) temperature, but it follows the same principle of layering aromas through temperature control. After making chili oil many times at home, here’s what I’ve learned:

• Chilies: The best ones have an intense fragrance and manageable heat. A combination of mild, highly aromatic varieties, such as èrjīngtiáo and dēnglóng (lantern chilies), gives you the base, while a smaller handful of cháotiānjiāo (facing-heaven chilies) adds an extra kick. For me, the chilies are the defining factor in chili oil. 
• The Oil: A neutral cooking oil will work in a pinch, but caiziyou is the traditional choice for good reason. It gives the finished oil a deeper, ruby-red color and a distinctly nutty fragrance. And because it’s thicker and richer than most neutral oils, the dressing clings to ingredients. When making chili oil, however, you have to pre-cook the caiziyou (heating it to its smoking point and then cooling it) to tame its stronger flavor notes. (If you’re using a neutral oil such as refined peanut oil, you can skip this step.)   
• Temperature: When adding oil at two temperatures, as I like to do at home (instead of the three different temperatures specified in the paper), the sweet spot for the first pour is around 375°F (190°C); a food thermometer is helpful here. Oil temperature climbs fast, so pay attention as it approaches 355°F (180°C). Above 390°F (200°C), you risk scorching the flakes, which will give the chili oil bitterness. 
• Preventing Scorched Flakes: Always moisten your dry chili flakes with a small splash of room-temperature oil before adding the hot oil. This simple barrier prevents the flakes from burning upon contact and helps distribute the heat evenly.

Building Your Three-Sliver Salad

Once you have the chili oil—preferably made the day before to allow the chili oil to sit and infuse—you can build your salad. 

Choosing Your Ingredients

I really love the flexibility of this recipe. You can use nearly any ingredient you have available. Simply choose three components from any combination of the categories below to create your own custom version of sansi:

• Vegetables: celtuce, cucumber, radish (such as daikon or green radish), kohlrabi or celery
• Protein: shredded poached chicken breast, pressed tofu sheets (bǎiyè dǒufu, 百叶豆腐), smoked tofu (xūn dòugān, 熏豆干), five-spice pressed tofu (dòufu gān, 豆腐干), or rehydrated yuba sheets (fǔzhú, 腐竹)
• Misc: Mung bean thread glass noodles

Cutting the Vegetables and Tofu for the Salad 

While this is an incredibly straightforward dish, it does require a bit of patience when it comes to cutting the ingredients into thin slivers. 

If you are using a chef’s knife, slice the vegetables into thin sheets first before stacking them and cutting them into fine matchsticks. For a faster alternative, I highly recommend using a mandoline or a vegetable julienne slicer. If your mandoline has a straight blade, set it to its thinnest setting to cut the vegetable into sheets, then use your knife to quickly shred the stack. Similarly, you’ll need to cut sheets of pressed tofu into thin slivers.

Preparing the Ingredients 

Ingredients that need to be cooked, such as tofu sheets, glass noodles and yuba sheets, are blanched quickly and then drained, some are then rinsed with cold water, to bring the temperature down. Chicken breast is cooked through, cooled and shredded. 

Raw, crunchy vegetables are usually salted after they’re cut. This seasons the vegetables while also drawing out excess water, which improves their crunch. For vegetables like celtuce, which carry a naturally raw, astringent bitterness (sèwèi, 涩味), a brief salting will help also remove those unpleasant notes. 

Note that five-spice tofu is already seasoned and can be eaten as is, so it doesn’t need to be blanched or salted.  

For more great uses for Sichuan chili oil check out Taylor’s Mouthwatering Sichuan Cold Chicken (Kou Shui Ji, 口水鸡) and Heartbreak Jelly Noodles (Shangxin Liangfen, 伤心凉粉) and Kathy’s Sichuan Chili Oil Wontons (Hongyou Chaoshou, 红油抄手).