Asian Rice Noodle Salad

Asian Rice Noodle Salad

Recipe by: Anna Hammarskjöld

This is a recipe from a combination of recipes on the internet with a bit of my experience with cooking today’s salad thrown in. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 package mai fun noodles

6 baby carrots, preferably organic, julienned (really should use 1-2 regular carrots, but only had baby carrots today)

1 hothouse cucumber, preferably organic, julienned

1 bag fresh bean sprouts, organic

1 red pepper, julienned

A drizzle of sesame oil, to taste

Dressing:

¼ c lime juice

¼ c rice vinegar

¼ c sugar

1 TBSP fish sauce or nam pla

2 tsp minced garlic

½ tsp red pepper flakes

½ tsp salt

Sliced green onion, personal preference. (Put in as much as you want, or as little as you want, or none. I am not a fan of green onion so I put in very little in today’s salad, because the salad is not for me, it’s to be shared.)

Topping:

Toasted sliced almonds

Toasted sesame seeds

Cilantro (I didn’t have any, so I omitted it)

Instructions:

Combine the ingredients for the dressing together in a bowl. I used a 2-cup measuring pitcher, though. Easy. Can measure right in the pitcher and later pour over the noodles. Set aside. The ingredients need time to meld together.

Boil a pot of hot water. When the water is boiling, put in the mai fun noodles and immediately turn off the heat. Let sit for several minutes until it’s soft to your preference. While the noodles sit, julienne the veggies.

I think it’s a pain to julienne baby carrots – I didn’t have any regular carrots on hand, only baby carrots. So I took out my little handy prep blender and shredded the baby carrots instead. Try doing that without the plunger. I had to use a wooden spoon instead.

I had more fun with the red pepper. I cut off the ends of the peppers and started cutting it into small slices length wise. I would say ¼ inch or less.

With the cucumber, I sliced it cross wise in about 3-4 inch sections. Then I took each 3-4 inch section and cut that in half length wise. I took each half and cut that length wise so that they became quarters. I then simply cut all the seeds out, leaving only the meat and the skin. I gave all the cucumber leftovers to my dog. I even gave her some baby carrots. I then laid the cucumber sections flat and cut that in small slices length wise, ¼ inch or less.

In a large bowl, combine the carrots, red pepper, cucumber and bean sprouts.

Toast the almonds and sesame seeds on low-medium heat in a small saute pan and stir. It takes seconds so watch carefully. Put them in a small bowl and set aside.

Drain the mai fun noodles and put in a slightly smaller bowl. Drizzle with sesame oil to taste so that the mai fun noodles stay separated. Now, the mai fun noodles are really long, so I cut them into smaller pieces with a knife. I forgot to break up the mai fun noodles before boiling them.

In the large bowl with the veggies, put in the mai fun noodles and stir. Add dressing and stir again. Top with toasted sliced almonds and sesame seeds, and any other toppings you would like.

I’ll leave you with this epiphany I had this morning, as I was feeling like I had totally lost my cooking mojo – “The secret to cooking is to have fun and to cook with love”.