Asian Noodle Salad
Even before I moved to China, I’ve always loved Asian food. It always makes everything taste so effortlessly fresh, packed full of vegetables and herbs without too much effort. Which also makes it perfect for summer. On those hot, lazy days where you start to get hungry at noon but the idea of standing on front of the hob for ages fills you with dread, this is perfect. While, sadly, the current hot weather is only happening in my mind – its about 14 degrees centigrade, raining and I’m lying in bed with the flu – a girl can still dream. This recipe shouldn’t take much longer than 30 min from start to finish and its both filling and refreshing. It would also be a total crowd pleaser as a side to a barbecue!
I always find it so easy to omit meat in Asian food as well, without compromising on flavour. I’ve posted the recipe below using chicken, but you can just as well replace it with some more vegetables! Or change the chicken to beef, turkey, cooked prawns or whatever else you have in the house. Similarly change the vegetables around to whatever you’ve got lying around in the fridge! I’ve added cherry tomatoes to this before, or blanched green beans, sugar snap peas…the list is endless!
Method to success:
- Don’t be afraid of seasoning – you want this to be quite
punchy! - Always rinse cooked noodles for alads in cold water. You want to make sure you stop the cooking process and remove excess starch so they don’t stick together
- I always, always chop coriander with the stalks – they have the most flavour so don’t throw them out. Ever.
- Be flexible, have fun and switch this around with whatever you have in the fridge
| Servings |
people
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- 160 g glass noodles, vermicelli or rice noodles
- 0.5 cucumber
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 yellow or red pepper
- 12 baby sweetcorn
- 1 red or green chili
- 400 g boneless, skinless, chicken thighs
- small bunch coriander
- small bunch mint
- 6 spring onions
- handful of roasted, salted peanuts
- 2 limes juiced
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- salt
- pinch of sugar
Ingredients
Noodle Salad
Dressing
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- Cook the noodles according to packet instructions, rinse in cold water and set aside in a large bowl. Swirl through 1/2 tbsp of oil to stop them sticking together.
- Cut the chicken into strips, season with salt and pan fry until cooked. Set aside to cool.
- Halve cucumber diagonally, remove seeds (they will make the salad watery otherwise). Halve and deseed pepper. Cut everything into matchsticks or, if you’re fortunate to own one, mandolin them like I did.
- Blanch the baby sweetcorn, then quarter. Add all vegetables to the noodles.
- ick leaves off the mint and chop roughly. Roughly chop the coriander (stalks and seeds). Thinly slice spring onion (white and green part). Halve, deseed and thinly slice chilli. Add herbs, chilli and spring onion to the noodle and vegetable pile.
- Make the dressing: combine the lime juice, sugar, sesame oil and soy sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning with a bit of salt and sugar. It should be slightly sweet, tangy and slightly salty. The noodles will absorb a lot of the flavour of the dressing, so season generously.
- Roughly chop the peanuts.
- Add the dressing and chicken to the noodles, mix well. Taste and season more if required. Pile onto plates, scatter with the peanuts and serve.
