It was so hot in Cape Town that I didn’t feel like eating food or meat. I wanted something light that was still tasty and had all those umami flavors. This is Vietnamese inspired, as I wanted to make a more traditional dressing but did not have fish sauce. You can add whatever veggies you have such as peppers, red onion, radishes just shred them into julienne pieces. There is something so satisfying about shredding vegetables, they maintain their crispy texture and are sooo aesthetically pleasing. You can adapt this recipe to include shredded chicken, a soft boiled egg, or add a hot broth to turn it into pho. Enjoy!

Cold Vietnamese Noodle Salad

Dressing Ingredients:

• 2 Tb Soya Sauce
• 1 Tb Lime Juice
• 1 Tb Sesame Oil
• 1 Tb Tamarind Sauce
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp red masala (ginger, garlic, red chilli)

Salad Ingredients:

• 2 x wheels rice noodles
• shredded cabbage, green or red
• carrots, julienne
• cucumber, julienne,
• big handful of mint leaves
• big handful of coriander leaves
• 2 – 3 spring onion, chopped
• Pickled ginger, optional
• peanuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Method:

1. Mix all dressing ingredients together. (Double dressing ingredients for more people).
2. Mix all salad ingredients together.
3. Keep some salad aside if you are not going to eat everything and seal in an airtight container, undressed.
4. Dress salad with a few teaspoons of dressing when you would like to eat. Make sure everything is coated well.

Tips:

To add protein: soft boiled egg, shredded chicken, steamed prawns, raw salmon or tuna, chicken broth for pho, thinly sliced seared beef, seared tuna.

Other veggies: red pepper, red onion, radishes, broccolini (tender stem broccoli), spinach leaves, green papaya, green mango, red chili, bean sprouts, thai basil.

Other: Use glass noodles instead of medium rice stick noodle.