Fresh herbs, rice noodles and zingy miso ginger dressing.  Just add cold beer.

 

This salad is for all those who love coriander, ginger and spring onions ie that trilogy of Asian flavours that at once says bright, palate cleansing and mouth poppingly good.  In hot weather the flavours are so refreshing that merely thinking about them seems to lower the temperature…mint, basil, coriander, lime and a zingy dressing with the ginger and miso… then crunchy peanuts and carrots or baby sweetcorn and if you want something a bit more substantial then add marinated beef fillet, some char grilled chicken or squid.

Ingredients

This salad served two people quite well

Rice noodles – I used one “tranche” of rice noodles from a packet that contained three

A selection of fresh herbs – the more the merrier.  I used:

Fresh Mint – a good handful

Fresh Coriander – a good handful

Fresh Basil.  Use Thai Basil if you can find it – a good handful

Some Chillis if you enjoy them

Peanuts – a handful

Cucumbers – 3 small sweet ones

2 small carrots and/or some baby sweetcorn and/or some mangetout

Chinese cabbage if you like it..I am never sure if I do 

Quite a lot of zingy ginger & miso dressing as the rice noodles seem to absorb it (thats my excuse anyhow!) 

Gadgets & Gizmos

A sharp knife and a chopping board.  Some boiling water for the noodles, a sieve and a large bowl. A pair of kitchen scissors for snipping all those herbs.

How To

Prepare the noodles first.  Pour boiling water over them very slowly if they are the uber fine ones, through the sieve  in the bowl and leave them to soak for 1-2 minutes. Drain and let them cool down taking care to spread them out a little so they do not stick together in a big sticky mass.  Generally they are quite well behaved.

Chop up the veggies

Now fold the sauce into the noodles as if you were making pasta. 

Add the veggies

 

and now the fresh herbs.  Feel free to use scissors.  Snip Basil and coriander with stalks.  Take mint leaves off the stalk as its woody. 

 

Finish snipping all the herbs and gently combine

eat immediately with a cold beer.