Thursday, 21 June 2018

Salad Days

It's been hot this week- proper 'salad weather'. I found this lovely recipe in my HFW "River Cottage Veg Everyday" book. "Herby-Peanutty-Noodly-Salad. Hugh says "a bright and zingy dressing, handfuls of herbs and crunchy peanuts pack loads of flavour into easy-cook noodles...When it comes to the fresh herbs, the mint is pretty much a must; the other two are desirable but optional."
INGREDIENTS [serves 4]
75g roasted unsalted peanuts
200g fine egg noodles or Thai rice noodles
150g French beans or mangetout, or a combination [I used beans and frozen petit pois]
½ cucumber
6 spring onions, trimmed
A small bunch of mint, roughly chopped
A small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped (optional) 
About 12 basil leaves (ideally Thai), roughly torn
FOR THE DRESSING 
2 tablespoons rice vinegar [I had none, used white wine vinegar]
Grated zest and juice of 1 lime, or ½ lemon
½ small red chilli, finely chopped [don’t like chili, used ½tsp paprika instead]
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil [I used sunflower and a pinch of toasted sesame seeds]
½ teaspoon soy sauce, plus extra to serve
METHOD
Bash peanuts lightly to break them up a bit.
For the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Drain and rinse under the cold tap. Add to the dressing and toss until well coated. Leave to cool completely in the dressing.
Cook the beans and/or mangetout in a pan of lightly salted boiling water till just tender and still a bit crunchy, 3-5 minutes for beans, 2-3 minutes for mangetout. Drain, refresh in cold water and drain well.
Halve the cucumber lengthways and slice thinly. Finely cut the spring onions on the diagonal. Toss the cooled noodles with the peanuts, cucumber, spring onions, beans and/or mangetout and herbs.
Serve with soy sauce on the side, for everyone to help themselves.
This picture is from the book - I forgot to take a photo before we ate our salads. I halved the quantities. I love this recipe because I had fresh mint in the garden, beans and petit pois in the freezer, and cucumber and spring onions in the fridge- and everything else in the pantry - so I could make it with the resources i had to hand.
It was fresh and tasty, and I will definitely be doing this one again.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds and looks lovely - well, I think so, unfortunately my husband wouldn't eat it with nuts in though.

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  2. Perhaps you could swap the nuts for diced red peppers or carrots to get contrast and crunch?

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    Replies
    1. Yes good idea, I'm sure that would work, thanks.

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  3. It sounds delicious! I like how you substitute what you have when you don't have a particular ingredient,called for in the recipe! :) It's sort of how I do things, too!

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