Instead of the usual fish sauce found in Thai salad recipes, my secret ingredient is Golden Mountain Sauce (sweeter, saltier and more complex than traditional soy sauce), plus a sprinkling of dried seaweed flakes.
I'm listing ingredients here rather than quantities, this is just a guide so it's really up to your taste what you throw in. Authentic Asian salads are too hot for me so I use a medium chilli, or a combination of red bell pepper and a hot chilli pepper. For authenticity use Asian mint, basil and coriander - personally I loathe coriander so substitute flatleaf parsley:
- 1 large carrot
- 1/3 of a cucumber
- 2 spring onions
- red pepper or chilli pepper, to taste
- handful of peanuts
- mint
- basil
- coriander or parsley
- rice vermicelli
- Golden Mountain sauce (or soy sauce)
- sesame oil
- juice of half a lime
- seaweed flakes
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil then add the dry noodles. Pop on the lid, take off the heat and leave to rehydrate for about 10 minutes. Don't leave them too long, better to err on the side of caution as they'll continue to soften later.
- Meanwhile finely slice - or julienne if you're being fancy - the carrots, cucumber, spring onion and pepper.
- Chop - or chiffonade, if you're being even more fancy - the herbs.
- Crush or chop a handful of peanuts.
- To make the dressing, in a bowl add a good glug of Golden Mountain sauce, a splash of sesame oil and lime juice. Mix in a sprinkling of sugar, and taste it. If it tastes good your job is half done.
- When the noodles are ready, drain, rinse in cold water and leave to drain.
- In a large bowl, combine the noodles, vegetables and herbs, then mix in the sauce.
- Mix in about a half of the crushed peanuts, then sprinkle the rest on the top to serve.
On a hot day this salad actually benefits from being chilled for half an hour or so, which really allows the flavours to develop. Just don't leave it too long!
