It’s been crazy hot here on my part of the world. I’m trying to stay away from the stove as much as possible. I’m sure you all can relate.
I’ve been trying to come up with substantial dishes that can be served cool or room temperature that don’t require to much heating up of the kitchen. This especially applies to Shabbat, where I’m tasked with creating and serving multiple dishes for a crowd.
This Vietnamese Rice Noodle dish is a perfect example of a meal-in-a-salad that comes together quickly and is great both warm or cold. It’s also very adaptable. You can swap out some of the veggies and change the protein to whatever you prefer. For this dish, I used turkey. I knew that my guests would be looking for some kind of meat dish and I had the turkey ready to go.
I started by cooking up the rice noodles. I used the thin rice vermicelli, which I can pour boiling water over to cook. Super easy to do. After soaking for around ten minutes, I drained the noodles.
I then cooked up the turkey with some garlic, ginger, shallots and chopped shiitake mushrooms. I love the flavors that comes off of the meat. Once cooked, I added some tamari and lime lime juice to the meat directly.
I chopped up my veggies and made the dressing. I was ready to go.
I mixed the veggies with the noodles and layered the ground turkey over it and then poured on the dressing. Everyone was happy with the salad.
I also make a vegetarian version of this salad. When I do, I swap out the turkey and use chopped tofu or the soy beef-style crumbles. They work well. When I crumble the tofu, I tend to use an extra firm version and add some extra garlic, ginger and soy sauce for extra flavor.
Hope you enjoy!
- 1 package vermicelli rice stick noodles
- 1 tbsp. rice bran oil
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 tbsp. ginger, chopped
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- juice of ½ lime
- 2 tsp. tamari
- 2-3 scallions, chopped
- 2 tbsp. cilantro, chopped
- 1 tbsp. mint, chopped
- 2 carrots, shredded
- ½ daikon, shredded
- 1 red pepper, chopped or julienned
- 1 seedless cucumber, julienned or chopped
- 1 cubed avocado
- 2 tsp. red pepper flakes
- juice of ½ lime
- 2 tbsp. rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar or honey
- 2 tbsp. tamari
- 1 tbsp. water
- ½ tbsp. rice bran oil
- 1 tbsp. chopped peanuts (optional)
- Cook the noodles by placing them in a large bowl and pour boiling water over it. Let sit a few minutes, drain and set aside.
- Heat up the oil in a large pan and saute the ginger, garlic and shallot.
- Add in the ground turkey and chopped shiitake mushrooms and cook until done.
- Squeeze the juice of a ½ lime and 2 tsp. tamari or soy sauce over the turkey and mix.
- Prep all of the veggies and set aside.
- Mix up the dressing ingredients and set aside.
- Mix the rice noodles with the veggies and then layer with the ground turkey mixture. Stir in the whisked dressing.
- Serve and enjoy!
