Thai noodle food truck find is easy to re-create at home
The inspiration behind this recipe comes from a salad box I bought from a food truck during a two-day music festival. We had been eating nothing but french fries, and I was starting to look like a french fry, so I was on the hunt for something healthy and delicious; substance that would energize me for the rest of the day.
The salad I got from this food truck was so good! The base featured thin rice noodles that were coated with a Thai peanut sauce; it was slightly sweet, creamy, nutty, sour and salty. Shredded carrots and red cabbage gave the salad color, sweetness and crunch, and the aroma from the peanuts, lime and cilantro kept me wanting more.
What I love about this salad is it’s easy to make, it’s impressive to serve, and it keeps well in the fridge, making it a great plant-based recipe to meal prep at the beginning of the week for mid-week lunches.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then turn off heat. Add rice noodles and soak 2 minutes. (NO LONGER or they’ll turn to mush.) Drain in a colander and immediately rinse noodles very well with cold water. Shake colander to remove excess water.
In a large bowl, whisk together coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and sesame oil. Add cooked noodles, coleslaw mix, peanuts and fresh herbs. Toss to combine.
Tips
To get the most juice out of a lime, roll the lime on the counter using a little of your body weight; this will get the juices flowing.
Twisting a lime half around the tines of a fork will also help get every last drop of juice out of the lime.
Drain noodles well so they don’t dilute the Thai sauce. Also, you can cut the noodles with scissors after they’ve cooked to make the salad easier to toss.
Great additions to this salad include more ginger (for added zing), chili flakes or a drop of Sriracha sauce (for heat) or a dollop of natural peanut butter (for nutty flavor).