Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Asian Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce


I have been craving this salad for some time now. I have seen various versions of it in cookbooks, but the peanut dressing recipes I have seen have not appealed to me. I finally got my peanut sauce down and could not wait to make the noodle salad. I like linguini for this recipe, but regular spaghetti or fettuccini noodles would work fine as well. In the summer, I would probably replace the baby corn with fresh corn, but canned baby corn works fine in the winter. I made a generous chiffonade of mint and cilantro and basil, I needed lots of green in my salad. To make a chiffonade, roll your herbs as if you were rolling a cigar then with a sharp knife slice the "cigar".

Toss a little sesame or vegetable oil (a teaspoon or less), into the noodles after they drain, it will keep them from clumping together. Shredded rotisserie chicken would be a great addition to add some protein. I also seasoned them at the table with Siracha sauce- I like spicy. When thinning the peanut sauce for the noodles, add the water a little at a time until it's the consistency of honey.

This past weekend I went to the farmers market and found the most beautiful purple carrots, I used them here. Almost any vegetable will work well in this salad, other good additions are celery, zuchinni, squash, broccoli and spinach. I like slicing the vegetables in different shapes to add texture.

Asian Noodle Salad with Spicy peanut Sauce

1 lb. linguini, cooked al dente in salted water
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
2 carrots (I used orange and purple), julienned
1 can water chestnuts, sliced
1 cup canned baby corn
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup mixed herbs (basil, cilantro, and mint) chopped (read about chiffonade above)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1 recipe peanut sauce found here
1/4 cup chopped salted peanuts for sprinkling on top

1. Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk 2 cups peanut sauce with up to 3 tablespoons of water to thin it out a little bit. Add peanut sauce to noodles and vegetables and toss together until evenly coated. Garnish with chopped peanuts and herbs. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature.

6 comments:

  1. Great colors in your dish - I've never seen purple carrots before!

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  2. Those carrots are amazing! Do they taste the same as orange carrots?

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  3. The purple carrots really caught my attention. They taste a little different than orange carrots- more earthy and maybe a little spicer- sort of like a radish, but milder.

    I bought them in a bunch with mixed colors, they had light yellow ones too. The yellow ones tasted like very mild carrots, the had white centers also. Pretty cool veggies at the Farmer's market last weekend. :)

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  4. Oh we're growing purple haze carrots right now and they're taking forever to get big! Can't wait because it'll be a great addition to this noodle salad that we hope to be making soon. Your colorful collage of vegetables are just beauteous!

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  5. Beautiful salad Katia! The purple carrots are such an interesting veggie.

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  6. I was looking for something creative like this. Then tried this awesome recipe. This recipe does not disappoint. It's a snap to prepare and really tasty. All my favorite flavors are within this.

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