Crunchy Thai Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing
My children love spring rolls, packed with crisp Napa cabbage, shredded carrot and rice noodles, but they can be time consuming to prepare. This salad came to be when I combined a mountain of vegetarian spring roll ingredients in one big bowl and tossed them together with a homemade peanut sauce. A garnish of fresh mint and cilantro sealed the deal for us and a family favourite was created – even the toddler agrees.
This meal-sized Food Processor salad is an ideal summer fare and really, it’s at the top of the list of things I want to eat on hot July days – right up there with ice cream. Most of the time I leave it vegetarian, but occasionally I’ll top it with grilled chicken brochettes. Either way, we’re getting over and above the recommended servings of vegetables in a day.
The KitchenAid® 13-Cup Food Processor with the exclusive ExactSlice system helps to make this salad prep a breeze. It slices from thick to thin with one slide of the lever and makes short work of all kinds of food—hard or soft, large or small – without having to change or remove the blade.
I’m often cooking for a crowd over the summer and serving up hearty filling salads is my specialty. Am I slaving in the kitchen chopping vegetables by hand? Hardly! Every fresh ingredient for this salad can be prepared in the KitchenAid® 13-Cup Food Processor, which simplifies my weekend entertaining. If you’re not sure about making salad dressing from scratch, the Peanut Dressing below is about as easy as they come. Toss all the ingredients in the KitchenAid Architect® Series Blender and puree until smooth. The blender has five speeds which provide versatility for all of your kitchen tasks – and that includes creamy salad dressing.
Try this recipe it for yourself! Serve a big beautiful salad as the main dish, grill a few brochette’s for those meat-lovers, have your guests bring dessert and you are set to host. It’s summer entertaining, simplified.
Crunchy Thai Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing
For the salad:150 grams dried rice vermicelli noodles
2 large carrots
Peeled 3 small sweet red peppers
Washed and cored 5 green onion
Tops only 1 small head Napa cabbage
½ bunch fresh cilantro
Washed 4 sprigs fresh mint
Washed ½ cup toasted cashews
For the Peanut Dressing:
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
1 clove garlic
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2-3 drops of Sriracha (or to taste)
Pinch of sugar
3 Tablespoons coconut water
Make the salad:
Cook rice noodles according to package directions.
Rinse under cold water and drain well.
Place noodles in the bottom of a large salad bowl.
Shred the carrots in the food processor using the medium shred disc.
Spread them over the rice noodles.
Add the adjustable slicing disc to the processor.
Slice the red peppers medium-thin on low speed.
Add them to the salad bowl.
Slice the green onion tops thinly on high speed.
Sprinkle them over the red pepper.
Shred the Napa cabbage and pile it high into the salad bowl.
Using the mini bowl and the mini stainless blade, coarsely chop the cilantro and mint.
Garnish the salad with the herbs.
In the same bowl, pulse the cashews a few times to chop them roughly.
Add them to the top of the salad.
Toss with Peanut Dressing and serve at once.
Make the dressing:
Combine all peanut dressing ingredients except for the coconut water in the KitchenAid® 5-Speed Architect® Series Blender.
Puree dressing until smooth.
Stop the blender and pour in the coconut water.
Blend until the dressing is a smooth, pourable consistency.
Transfer to a small jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
Shake before tossing salad.
