Thai Rice Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce Dressing

A couple of weeks after making my last batch of VietnameseSalad rolls, we had a craving for something similar but to be honest I didn't want to spend the time wrapping them! So I ever so slightly adapted the sauce, added a tonne of veggies, used the same type of rice noodles and left out the rice paper wrappers to create this great salad. We've had it two times this week. It’s great at room temperature or chilled so it also makes a great potluck or BBQ dish.

The real question is why it’s called Thai Noodle Salad but when I use rice paper wraps they're called “Vietnamese Salad Rolls” ... hmmm let’s not over think it!

Yield: 6-8 side dishes.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Peanut Sauce Dressing

Ingredients

½ cup hoisin sauce or paste
1 cup peanut butter
2 tsp hot sauce (I use sriracha)
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Juice of 2-3 limes

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Set aside.

Rice Noodle Salad

Ingredients

150g (6 oz) thin rice vermicelli, cooked and rinsed cool as per manufacturers directions

5 medium carrots, shredded or cut into matchsticks (I use pre-cut matchstick carrots)

2 red peppers, julienned

2 mangoes, peeled and sliced thin

2 cups sugar snap peas, cut on the diagonal

1 large bunch of basil and/or cilantro, roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Toss noodles and veggies into a large bowl.
2. Add peanut dressing. Toss again (I usually just use my hands to toss it as it is the easiest way to make sure the dressing is mixed thoroughly with the noodles).
3. Serve.