Tim Chin is a professional cook and writer who has contributed to Serious Eats and America’s Test Kitchen. A graduate of The International Culinary Center, Tim has cooked at restaurants in New York and Boston, working at Rouge Tomate, Northern Spy, and BiSq.

Tim Chin

If you’ve been looking to add some sizzle, spice, and table-side theatrics to your salad game (because why should chain restaurant fajitas get all the glory?), then this dish is for you. This salad takes advantage of the textural marvels of <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-make-yuba-tofu-skin">yuba</a>, balancing tender-chewy blanched tofu skin “noodles” with crunchy fried puffed yuba chips that get seasoned with a Yunnan-inspired dipping chile powder, soy sauce, and sesame oil, before getting baptized with a hot oil bath right before serving.That hot oil sizzle isn’t just for show—the oil instantly blooms the oil-soluble volatile aromas in the spice mix, drawing out tingly heat from Sichuan peppercorns and chile powder, medicinal notes from sand ginger and dried tangerine peel, and warm spice complexity from toasted star anise, black cardamom, cumin, and cinnamon.Fresh scallion and cilantro balance out the heady spices and slow-building dried chile burn for a seriously satisfying—and unintentionally vegan—salad that eats like a hearty noodle dish.

Spicy Sizzling Yuba Salad