Sunday, January 26, 2014

Asian Rice Noodle Salad Recipe- Vegan, Cheap, and Easy- With Grain Free Alternative

 photo IMG_1700_zps4c232747.jpgI had a guest coming. And had the perfect menu planned and cooked. Time was running out. And then I tasted the rice--- way over salted! To the point gthat I couldn't serve it! I was stressing out, because even though I could cook more rice in my pressure cooker in just a few minutes, I was completely out of rice.
What I did have, though, were rice noodles- rice vermicelli- which take less than 5 minutes to cook. So I decided to prepare them, and make a rice noodle salad with them to serve.
Only I wasn't having much success in finding a good recipe to make with them- all the recipes I came upon called either for a variety of greens- cilantro, parsley, basil, mint, and/or chives, or fish, or bean sprouts, or cabbage, or all the above. And I had none available.

Fortunately, I managed to piece together this recipe from various sites, and came up with a delicious rice noodle salad that hit the spot, and used only what I had in the house...


Asian Rice Noodle Salad Recipe- Vegan, Cheap, and Easy

Ingredients:
1/2 package rice vermicelli, or 5 cups prepared rice noodles OR to keep it grain free, use equal amounts cellophane noodles (made from mung bean starch) OR I assume you can use kelp noodles, though haven't tried them
1/4 cup soy sauce (use gluten free soy sauce to keep it gluten free)
1/4 cup vinegar (either white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or rice vinegar)
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup sucanat or coconut sugar or white sugar (if using white sugar, use less than 1/4 cup to start with, then increase if you feel it needs the full amount of sugar, as white sugar is sweeter than sucanat or coconut sugar)
3 medium cloves garlic
2-3 drops tabasco sauce or a few dashes hot pepper flakes (optional)
1 medium cucumber (1 1/4 cup chopped up)
1-2 carrots (1 1/4 cup chopped up)
1/3-1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts (optional)
Sesame seeds (optional)
Scallions (optional)

Instructions:
1. Prepare your noodles as instructed on the packaging- don't overcook them if the instructions involve cooking, since you don't want mushy noodles.

2. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and sucanat/coconut sugar/sugar together until the sugar gets dissolved.

3. Mince the garlic very small and add the garlic and hot sauce/hot pepper flakes to the soy/vinegar/oil/sugar mix.

4. Cut the carrots and cucumbers into matchstick sizes.

5. Mix the veggies with the noodles.

6. Add peanuts.

7. Pour on the dressing, and mix well.

8. If desired, top with scallions or sesame seeds. (I was out of both, and left them both out, and it was perfectly fine without it.)

9. If you can leave it to marinate, its even better the next day, but can be eaten within a few minutes of making it as well.

Do you make rice noodle salad? What do you put in yours? Does this look like a recipe you'd try?


2 comments:

  1. I also like to add in lightly sweetened scrambled egg strips--make a thin omelette, cut in matchstick lengths--like the tamago(egg) used in sushi rolls. Also strips of lunchmeat or leftovers is good too, but for a potluck I leave on the side for non-vegetarians to add. I use somen noodles.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What about spaghetti squash as another grain-free alternative? (Just an idea- I haven't tried spaghetti squash yet, as I'm not grain-free, but I hope to sometime.)

    ReplyDelete

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