Asian Rice Noodle Salad with Sweet and Sour Soy Dressing

Zingy, fresh vibrant and delicious! This veggie-filled vegan-friendly rice noodle salad has is it all. And it’s stupidly quick and easy to prepare! 

This is a beautiful dish but let me just say one thing, the dressing in this dish is absolutely necessary. The salad is pretty boring without it, which I know is the case with most salads, but I just love how that tiny spoonful of dressing makes this dish go from boring to amazing. So DO NOT skip the dressing.

Beware of peanut allergies

It’s a real shame that so many people have peanut allergies. They go so well with so many different dishes, especially recipes that involve rice. And I don’t know what I would do without my peanut butter.

Of course, you don’t have to use peanuts, there are plenty of other alternatives. I would either go for toasted almonds, cashews, hazelnuts or un-chopped pine nuts (since they are already small enough) but that’s just my choice of alternatives. And if you have an overall nut allergy, perhaps you could go for something like sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds. Just something that gives that little bit of added texture.

The best way to cut the veg

Honestly, this recipe is so quick and straightforward so there isn’t really much to say about it. So what I’ll do instead is show you how to cut vegetables super thin julienne style. Now you can cut them any way you like, however, this is a fantastic way to cut vegetables when serving them raw.

First of all, if you have a julienne peeler, that would be absolutely perfect for this dish.

Now, I don’t want to assume you have a julienne peeler so I am going to show you how to do it with a regular peeler or a speed peeler.

You simply just peel the vegetable in the strips, and then you place one strip on top of the other and use a knife to cut the strips into thin “sticks”.

Now there are some vegetables and ingredients that you can’t really cut this way, for example, trying to peel the snow peas and the spring onion wouldn’t be very effective. So instead, I just got my knife, I slightly angled the ingredient and then cut them as long as thin as I could. Taking the time to do this can really improve your knife skills.

Once again, if you really don’t cut the ingredients like this you don’t have to. You could just dice the veggies nice and small or thinly slice them.

Don’t overcook the rice

The more you overcook the rice, the more sticky and claggy it comes. And that is the last thing you want when serving a fresh rice noodle salad. So make sure you don’t steep the rice in the boiling water for too long. 2 minutes of cooking has always been the perfect time when preparing vermicelli rice noodles.

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If you decide to make this recipe, I ask that you leave a star rating in the recipe box below, and to leave a comment letting me know your thoughts. And if you like salad recipes, then you may also like this Broccoli Caesar Salad. Have an amazing day and take care (:

5 from 2 votes

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Asian Rice Noodle Salad with Sweet and Sour Soy Dressing

This salad is filled with fresh, vibrant ingredients and flavours. Works as the perfect side or appetizer.  

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Asian Influence

Keyword Asian Salad, rice noodle salad, soy dressing

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 2 minutes

Total Time 22 minutes

Servings 4 people

Calories 178 kcal

Author Nicolas

Ingredients

Sweet and Sour Soy Dressing:

• 4 tablespoons of light soy sauce
• Coriander sprigs finely chopped
• 1½ tablespoons of palm sugar or brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
• 3½ tablespoons of lime juice
• One red chilli finely chopped
• 1/2 a stalk of lemon grass bruised and finely chopped

Asian Rice Noodle Salad:

• 200 g of vermicelli rice noodles
• 100 g of snow peas topped and tailed
• 1 spring onion
• 1 carrot washed and peeled
• 1 cucumber
• A few springs of mint chopped
• A handful of coriander leaves chopped don't throw away the sprigs
• A handful of flat leaf parsley chopped
• 125 g of peanuts

Instructions

Sweet and Sour Soy Dressing:

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to let the flavours infuse in the dressing. 

Asian Rice Noodle Salad:

1. Boil plenty of water in a kettle. Put your rice noodles in a bowl and then cover with boiling water. Leave for 2 minutes then drain. Set them aside to cool.

2. Cut the snow peas and the spring onion in into little thin matchsticks (julienne). Then use a speed peeler to peel long thin strips out of the carrot and the cucumber. Stack those strips on top of each other, and then cut the strips lengthways (if you are confused by this step, look at the video or the photos on the blog post). 

3. Mix the Rice noodles, snow peas, spring onions, carrots, cucumber, chopped mint, chopped coriander and chopped parsley in a large bowl. 

4. Get a pan over medium-high heat, then add your peanuts. Toss/stir them every 30 seconds - 1 minute until they develop a light toasted colour (be careful not to burn them). Transfer the peanuts to a pestle mortar, then crush the peanuts into smaller pieces. 

5. Serve the salad in a bowl or serving platter with a pair of tongs. then serve the dressing and toasted crushed peanuts on the side so people can help themselves. 

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

• Don't steep the rice noodles in the boiling water for too long. 
• Beware of people who may have peanut allergies. 
• Make the dressing first so that you give time for the flavours to infuse and for the sugar to completely dissolve. 

Nutrition Facts

Asian Rice Noodle Salad with Sweet and Sour Soy Dressing

Amount Per Serving

Calories 178 Calories from Fat 26

% Daily Value*

Fat 2.9g4%

Saturated Fat 0.4g3%

Sodium 1908mg83%

Potassium 857mg24%

Carbohydrates 33.6g11%

Fiber 3.3g14%

Sugar 14.5g16%

Protein 4.9g10%

Calcium 50mg5%

Iron 2mg11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.