Looking for a recipe for Thai Noodle Salad?

After a long time on the road, I like to cook at home. I am currently in northern San Diego for the moment and there isn’t a big Asian population here. And for an Asian, it means the area lacks decent Asian restaurants. I have to drive 45 minutes south to go to the Asian neighbourhood or my choices are Panda Express or PF Changs. Sad face. So often I will have to cook Asian food at home. This gal needs her rice and or noodles! It has been hot and humid lately so sometimes I want something that’s super light, like a noodle salad or something cold. This Thai Noodle Salad recipe is a sort of mixture of both. It’s my first time making it. I mixed two different recipes online and freestyled to work with what ingredients I had in the house.

Chicken or protein

Chop up your chicken into long strips or however, you want them. You can add any kind of meat that you want or omit and add tofu if you are a vegetarian or vegan. I rarely eat shrimp at home but saw some on sale at the market so I grabbed a little bit. I deveined them too. You can use whatever oil you have to stir fry the meat. I had some sesame oil so I used that. Once cooked, set it aside.

The uncooked chicken and deveined shrimp

Noodles

Now prepare the rice sticks or glass noodles. Boil some water and then throw the hot water over the noodles in a bowl and cover for like 5 minutes. Then rinse the noodles in a colander with cold water to stop cooking.

Noodles for Thai Noodle Salad

Vegetables

While this is happening, chop up some vegetables. I bought some pre-cut carrots, chopped up some Persian cucumbers, and grape tomatoes. I chopped mint, basil, and cilantro (coriander).

Veggies and herbs to add to Thai Noodle Salad

Dressing

My bad! I realize that I didn’t take a photo of the dressing. In a bowl, squeeze the juice of one lime and add fish sauce. Then add some rice vinegar and a bit of sugar. I had no idea what it would taste like and it was great. Just taste test as you go along. I would just throw in whatever you have in small amounts and create something.

Final Product

I threw everything into a large bowl and then threw the dressing over top and mixed it up. I also toasted some peanuts in my wok too and chopped them up and threw them on as a garnish. Below is the final product with some sriracha on top. You can add whatever hot sauce if you like heat, I always throw in sambal.

Thai Noodle Salad with chicken and shrimp!

Why cooking at home is awesome:

• Good for you
• Saves you money
• Healthy (mostly)
• I will give myself props and say I’m a half decent cook so a meal needs to be either cheap and cheerful or mind-blowing. I hate paying for average food when I can bust something like this out to feed a handful of people for around $15 and everyone is happy

If you make this, tell me what you think!!