Asian noodle salad
Topped with cilantro microgreens from 41North
This is one of my favorite new recipes. I can’t seem to get enough of it! The original recipe comes from a small café located in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands. I have modified Kirsten Gilmour’s recipe and included shrimp or tofu instead of beef.
Servings: 2 to 3 people for dinner with leftovers
Ingredients
Salad
1 red bell pepper finely chopped
1 carrot grated
6 green onions finely chopped
½ English cucumber chopped (or 1 full American cucumber peeled and chopped)
6 oz of cooked vermicelli noodles (give or take!)
Small handful of finely chopped cilantro (coriander if you are in England)
10 or so finely chopped mint leaves
1 handful flaked coconut (toast in a dry pan until the coconut starts to turn brown).
Dressing
3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil (or regular sesame oil if you prefer)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (or tamari if you are GF)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Juice and zest of 2 limes
Optional nuts
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons soy sauce (or tamari)
150g sliced almonds or cashews
Creating the Magic!
1. Place the chopped pepper, cucumber, green onions, cucumber, toasted coconut, cilantro and mint in a bowl with the cooked noodles (I recommend adding sesame oil to the noodles once they are cooked to keep them from sticking).
2. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and mix until blended. The dressing should be tangy but a little sweet. Adjust as necessary. Mix the dressing into the salad – I like to add half the dressing, taste and then add more until I feel like the salad is completely dressed. If you don’t like a lot of dressing, then add half and taste as you go. Place the salad in the fridge and chill for a couple of hours.
3. To make the nuts, toast the nuts in a small, dry frying pan over a high heat until they start to brown. Open a window or put on your overhead fan if you have one, turn down the heat and add the soy sauce and fish sauce and cook for about 1 minute until the nuts take on all the liquid. Be warned, the smell of the fish and soy sauce isn’t to everyone’s liking hence why I suggested turning on the fan or opening a window! Remove the nuts from the heat.
4. Remove the salad from the fridge about 30 minutes prior to eating. Add the nuts and enjoy! Top with crispy tofu or shrimp (see below).
Optional Pan Fried Shrimp
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 ½ pounds of defrosted peeled and deveined large raw shrimp
Creating the Magic!
1. Defrost the shrimp in water. Remove tails and skins.
2. Dry shrimp on a paper towel.
3. Mix paprika, cumin, salt and pepper in a medium size bowl. Add the dried shrimp and mix.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a medium size frying pan. Add the shrimp. Cook for a couple of minutes until the shrimp turn pink on each side (about a couple of minutes on each side)
