I love this salad, so fresh, crunchy and tangy. Serve it with grilled Lemongrass Chicken, bbq pork or prawns. It goes great with Peanut Sauce, or Lime + Ginger Peanut Dressing.

It also lends itself to Salad in a Jar, for lunches or quick dinners.

Asian Noodle Salad

MAKES

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

• 250gm packet of vermicelli noodles
• 4 cups julienne raw vegetables (a combination of carrot, zucchini, cucumber, kohl rabi, capsicum, radish, chinese or purple cabbage, shredded asian greens, blanched green beans etc)
• 1 cup fresh herbs (coriander, mint, Thai basil)
• 1 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds

Asian dipping sauce/ dressing

• 1cm x 1cm piece of fresh ginger (1 tsp once finely grated)
• 5 Vietnamese mint/ common mint leaves (or Thai basil)
• Juice of 1 lime (about 1 tbsp) or 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar or verjuice
• 2 tbsp gluten free tamari
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp Asian fish sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp garlic infused olive oil
• 1 tsp roast onion infused olive oil
• 1/2 to 1 stick lemongrass (optional)
• 1 small chilli (or a glug of Sweet Chilli and Ginger Sauce, or Green Chilli and Lime Sauce) (optional)

To serve

• cold hard boiled eggs
• lime wedges

METHOD

1. Soak the noodles as per instructions on the packet (I usually use boiling water, not cold water). Drain and set aside in a large bowl
2. Julienne the vegetables and chop the herbs. Add to the bowl with the noodles.
3. To make the dressing, peel the ginger, using a vegetable peeler or small paring knife
4. If using lemongrass, remove the hard outer layers from the lemongrass stem area (and cut the softer green tips off too – set aside to dry and use in tea). Finely grate the ginger (and lemongrass, if using) on a 2mm fine kitchen rasp
5. Very finely chop the mint (or basil) and chilli (is using – remove seeds & white if it is a super hot chilli)
6. Combine the lime juice, tamari, macadamia oil, brown sugar, fish sauce, sesame, garlic and roast onion oils in a small bowl or jug.
7. Stir or whisk to combine, until sugar has dissolved.
8. Add ginger and herbs (lemongrass and chilli, if using) and stir to combine
9. Add dressing to the noodles and veges, mix through and then top with bean sprouts, peanuts and sesame seeds, plus cold boiled eggs, lime wedges etc.

MEAL PREP/ COOK ONCE, SERVE TWICE

• You can prep the vegetables several days in advance, store in an airtight container in the fridge
• You can prep the individual elements in the morning, to bring together and serve as dinner
• You can prep the salad for lunches for the week, but keep the dressing in small separate containers, for Salad in a Jar
• Use the leftover salad in Rice Paper rolls.

NOTES

• If you are new to a Low FODMAP Way of Eating, check out my Beginner’s guide.
• If you do not require low FODMAP recipe, you can use 1 small clove of garlic, crushed, instead of the infused oil, as well as veges like corn, sugar snap peas, snow peas and red onion.