With all of us pretty much stuck indoors for the foreseeable future, I wanted to bring you something healthy and light yet really flavourful and tasty. This Thai salad is made with rice vermicelli noodles that take on all of the delicious flavours in the recipe including lime, sesame, ginger, garlic, chili, mint and coriander. The beef gives it a savoury note whilst the pineapple adds a fresh tang to the picture.
If you don't have or cannot find some of the ingredients, just be creative and substitute where you can. The orginal recipe called for pork mince, shallots and lemongrass - which I did not have and was unable to find particularly as I am limiting my exposure and trying not to shop as much. So, I substitued beef for the pork, used a red onion instead of shallots and left the lemongrass out.
I'll use any remaining ingredients that cannot be stored in the cupboard or in my small freezer over the next few days to create some more dishes - have fun cooking and enjoy!
Ingredients
For the salad:
1 tablespoon peanut oil
250 grams beef mince
100 grams rice vermicelli noodles
1/4 red onion finely sliced
60 grams baby spinach
1 large garlic clove finley sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
1 bird'e eye chili finely sliced (more if you like it hotter!)
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
5 fresh kaffir lime leaves finely sliced (remove the tough center stem)
1 cup of fresh chopped pineapple
For the dressing
1 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablesppons fish sauce
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons peanut oil
Method
First, get your vermicelli noodles and place them into a glass mixing bowl. Pour boiling water over the noodles so that they are just covered and leave to soak for about five minutes or until softened. Drain the noodles and rinse them well in cold water. Leave to drain thoroughly in a colander.
Next, make the super-easy dressing. Simply whisk together the light brown sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, sesame oil and 2 teaspoons of peanut oil. Set aside.
Heat a wok or large frying pan to medium-high. Add one tablesppon of peanut oil and sautee the minced beef until it starts to brown in colour. Next, add in the garlic, ginger, onion and kaffir lime leaves and cook for about a minute or so until fragrant. Set aside.
Transfer the rice noodles to a bowl. Give the dressing a whisk to re-combine and add 3/4 of the mixture to the noodles (I reserve the extra for leftovers). Add the coriander, mint, pineapple, chili and spinach to the noodle mix. Finally, add the cooked beef mixture and use a fork to lift the noodles and combine all. Divide between two bowls and garnish with a little more mint, chili and coriander.
This serves a little more than two depending on your appetite and the leftovers can be kept in the fridge for 24 hours and eaten at room temperature.
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