Rice noodle salad with Thai chili lime dressing

I cheat a little bit in this recipe by using prepared Thai red curry paste. If you can find Kafir lime leaves, use those in place of the lime zest I have included in the dressing recipe. However, not everyone has access to a good Asian grocery, and so lime zest will suffice in a pinch.

How to cook rice noodles:

The rice noodles used in this recipe can be a bit tricky to cook.  If you undercook them, they will have the texture of soft plastic (not good). But if you overcook them they will disintegrate before your eyes when you try to mix your salad together. I recommend watching them very closely when you place them in the boiling water. Start testing them for doneness within about a couple minutes or so. They should feel flexible and yield to the tooth when you bite them. Once they feel cooked, immediately turn off the heat.

Start cooling down your noodle mixture immediately after cooking:

After straining the noodles and green peas in a colander, make sure to rinse thoroughly with cold water. You can ensure that you have adequately cooled down the noodle mixture by placing your hand under the colander under in the running water and feel that the water running through the noodles is relatively cool to the touch.

Add the oil to noodles immediately or else:

If you skip this next step, when you return to retrieve your chilled noodles from the refrigerator they will have congealed into a large, sticky noodle lump that will be totally unmanageable. So, once all of the water has been drained from the noodle mixture, place the mixture in a large mixing bowl (you will be adding many more ingredients to this bowl in later steps). Next, pour the vegetable oil and sesame oils over the noodles and gently and thoroughly mix into the noodle mixture to ensure every noodle is coated with a thin layer of oil. 

Rice noodle salad with Thai chili lime dressing

The Salt Monster

A lime and chili spiked rice noodle salad studded with vegetables, peanuts and cilantro.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Asian, Thai

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  

Dressing ingredients:

• 1 can coconut cream
• 2 tbs red curry paste
• 1 tsp ground tumeric
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup fish sauce (or soy sauce if vegetarian option preferred)
• zest of one lime
• Juice of three limes
• 8-10 cloves garlic peeled
• 2 inch piece ginger peeled and coarsely grated
• 1 bunch cilantro roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 tbs salt

Salad ingredients:

• 1/2 package dried or fresh rice stick
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sesame oil
• 1 16 ounce bag frozen peas
• 1 cups shelled edamame
• 1 small red bell pepper
• 1 small yellow bell pepper
• 3-5 green onions sliced diagonally
• 3-4 celery stalks sliced diagonally
• 2 medium to large carrots
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 cup shredded red cabbage
• 1 cup roasted salted peanuts
• 1 bunch cilantro chopped

Instructions

 

Make salad dressing:

• Add all salad dressing ingredients to the bowl of a blender and process until smooth. Store in the fridge until needed.

Prepare rice noodles:

• Add the rice noodles to boiling, salted water. These will not take long to cook so test frequently to ensure they don’t overcook. Once they feel soft to the bite remove from the heat, and toss the frozen peas into the cooking liquid. Stir well. These just need to heat through. Place the rice noodles and peas into a colander and run under cold water. If you overcook the noodles they will disintegrate when you try to stir your salad together-beware!
  
• Place the drained noodles and peas in a mixing bowl. Add the sesame oil and vegetable oil to the bowl and toss to combine. This will help keep the rice noodles from sticking together. Place in the refrigerator and allow to cool.
• Cook the edamame according to package instructions, strain and add to the rice noodles and peas once cooked.
• Add the chopped peppers to the mixing bowl.
• Slice the celery diagonally and add to the mixing bowl.
  
• Slice the green onions diagonally and add to the mixing bowl.
  
• Shred the red cabbage thinly and add to the mixing bowl.
• Cut the carrots into small matchsticks. To do this, first peel the carrots and cut into approximately 3 inch sections. Next slice along the long axis of the carrot into approximately quarter inch thick slices. Lastly, slice at a 90° angle to the previous slices.
  
• Coarsely grated the zucchini and add to the mixing bowl.
• Add the peanuts and the cilantro to the mixing bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad mixture and stir to combine.
• Taste the salad. It might need more salt (If you are a salt monster too) and an extra squeeze of lime juice.
  

Keyword chili, noodle salad, rice noodle, Thai, thai noodle salad