Chicken Larb Noodle Salad
Serves: 4
Time: 30 minutes
Asian fusion meals are among some of my favourite dishes to eat. They’re light, clean and pack a punch in the flavour department. I have used chicken mince today but this dish would work great with pork or turkey mince or even soft scrambled tofu if you wanted to go vegetarian.
Leftovers
This is a substantial salad for leftovers and because it’s already more or less a cold dish you know it’s going to be a tasty as lunch tomorrow.
What you'll need
500g chicken mince (free range chicken or organic is the tastiest option)
1 cucumber
1 small red onion
Want More Crunch?
Add some crushed up salty peanuts or one of my favorites, crispy golden shallots.
1 carrot
3/4 bunch of coriander
2 cloves of garlic
a thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 long red chili
3-4 spring onion stalks
1/4 bunch of basil (optional but tastes great)
2 limes
250g vermicelli noodles
From the Pantry
1/4 cup of fish sauce
1/3 of a cup of olive oil (sesame would also work well if you prefer)
salt and pepper
Optional for Veggo’s
1 block silken tofu, scrambled or Quorn mince
Prep and Cook
Soak Noodles in Boiling Water.
Place noodles in a large bowl and cover completely with boiling water. Leave to soften.
Prepare Veg
Use a potato peeler to peel strips off your cucumber till you get to the seed, put them into a bowl of cold water then place bowl in the fridge. This will make them nice and crisp.
Peel and finely slice the carrot.
Remove the skin from the red onion and slice off the root, then slice finely by following the lines
Washing herbs
Whether you leave the roots and stalks on or pick the leaves off first, I find the most efficient way to wash herbs is to completely submerge them in fresh water and give them a gentle shake. Then remove by hand and discard the dirty water.
Wash Herbs and Pick Leaves
Pick the leaves and discard any stalks that are too thick.
Make Dressing
Peel and grate 1/2 your ginger using a fine grater or a microplane. Finely chop garlic, saving half to use on the chicken, then combine with the ginger, fish sauce, cracked pepper, oil and freshly squeezed lime juice. Mix well.
Fry Chicken
Finely grate the rest of your ginger and combine with the remaining garlic. Then sauté lightly in a large, hot frying pan with some olive or coconut oil.
Crumble your chicken mince into the hot pan. It's important not to overfill your pan otherwise the chicken will sweat, so if need be, do this stage in batches.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper as you go. Add a splash of fish sauce.
Fry till lightly golden.
Scrambled Tofu Instead...
Cook the garlic and ginger the same, then add the silken tofu to the pan and use a spatular to break apart the tofu so that it resembles scrambled eggs. A dash of soy and fish sauce will add flavour.</span
At the same time
While your chicken is cooking, strain the water from your noodles and toss through the dressing. Add your freshly picked herbs and finely sliced spring onions.
Plate it Pretty
Portion your noodles out into two bowls and two leftover containers, then arrange your raw veg around the outside of roughly half your bowl.
Fill the remainder space with the chicken, and top with the cucumber ribbons and fresh herbs.
Lastly sprinkle with some fresh chopped chili.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
Leftovers from this dish are pretty substantial but if you feel like it could be a bit light, you could always bulk it up with any leftover cabbage. This is one of the few salads that actually work wells the next day with dressing.