Serves: 4 - Time:
Turkey is the favoured meat here purely because I am making this salad with a view to using up the Christmas leftovers. At any other time of the year I make it with cold chicken left over from a Sunday roast. The peanut dressing is the thing which really makes this salad. It may look like an impossibly long list of ingredients but it takes minutes to make. I cut the vegetables with the julienne blade on a mandolin which is super quick. What you add to the noodles can be whatever you might have in the fridge although I would suggest some vegetables with a bit of bite-radishes, celery, shredded Chinese leaf.
Ingredients
- For the peanut dressing
- 1 teaspoons oil
- 1 echalion shallot, peeled and finely chopped
- 1cm piece root ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
- 5 heaped tablespoons smooth peanut butter
- 160ml can coconut cream
- 2 ½ teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons sriracha
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- For the salad
- 100g wholegrain rice vermicelli
- ½ cucumber, cut into julienne strips
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into julienne strips
- 3 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
- 1 avocado, halved, stoned and the flesh chopped into small pieces
- 500g turkey (or chicken), cut into chunks
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander
- 1 tablespoon roughly torn basil leaves
- A sprinkle of toasted sesame oil
Method
- Heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the shallot, ginger and garlic for 6-8 minutes until soft but not coloured. Add the peanut butter and coconut cream and stir until smooth. Stir in the remaining dressing ingredients along with 4 tablespoons hot water. Take off the heat and leave at room temperature. You may need to add a little bit more water once the dressing has cooled-you are looking for a thick double cream consistency.
- Put the noodles in a large bowl and pour over boiling water. Leave for 3-4 minutes (or according to packet instructions), drain and refresh under cold running water. Drain well.
- Put the noodles in a large bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients. Mix everything really well. Serve the salad with the dressing- I prefer to serve the dressing for people to help themselves rather than coat the noodles and vegetables.
