Sometimes, a recipe is born out of necessity. That’s what happened with this pomelo salad.

I wanted to make a Thai pomelo salad with fresh red chili and fish sauce. But I couldn’t find fresh chili or fish sauce anywhere. I thought about ordering the fish sauce on Amazon, but that seemed extreme.

So, I decided to work with what I had. I mixed baby spinach with fresh lime juice, roasted peanuts, red chili flakes and pomelo. For those of you unfamiliar with pomelo, it’s basically the same as grapefruit. If it was a person, I’d describe it as grapefruit’s more laid back younger sister.

When I took a bite of the salad, I knew I had achieved my end goal. It was sweet, spicy and slightly tart. All the flavor components were there except for the fish sauce. One day I’ll find a bottle and I’m sure that the salad will reach a new level.

Until then, I’ll keep this dish as a lunchtime staple. When you ain’t got much, work with what you’ve got. Or something like that.

Here’s a song that will get you in the pomelo salad mood. It is sweet but also has a little kick. It’s also good for avoiding your to-do list and writing a blog post at 10% battery with no charger in a café.

Pomelo Salad (from me, to you)

Ingredients

1 pomelo, peeled and sliced
2 handfuls of baby spinach
juice of one lime
1 tsp red chili flakes (or more if you like spicy food)
1-2 tbsp roasted, unsalted peanuts
sprinkle of sea salt

Directions

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and toss until the lime juice coats all the spinach leaves. Top with more peanuts and red chili flakes. Enjoy!