Tonight I wanted to try out a vegan noodle salad recipe from plantyou.com. The recipe called for rice noodles, veggies, and a nut-based dressing. I also steamed some asparagus as a side because the asparagus looked so good at the Farmers’ Market. My interpretation of the plantyou.com recipe is listed below (their original recipe is available here):
Ingredients:
Two Nut Dressing:
- 3/8 cup peanuts soaked in water for 2 hours*
- 3/8 cup pecans soaked in water for 2 hours*
- Juice/segments from 1 orange
- 1/4 cup of water from the soaked nuts
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
- 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
*plantyou.com’s recipe called for walnuts as well, but I decided to try just a peanut/pecan mix
Salad
- 8 oz rice noodles
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 carrot ribboned
- 2 green onions diced
- 1 cup red or green cabbage, diced (red looks prettier)
- 1/2 cup chopped tomato
- 1 cup chopped parsley (optional)
*plantyou.com’s recipe called for parsley but I am not a fan, so I left it out.
The first step is to soak the nuts in water for at least 3 hours.
The next step is to prepare the noodles: I used Thai Brown Rice Noodles so I soaked them in hot water for about 10 minutes (until tender), drained them, and then refrigerated them until they were cool.
Once the 3 hours soaking is up, drain the nuts, reserving 1/4 cup water, and chop your veggies, including the garlic.
Make sure you have all the ingredients for the nut dressing ready to go (drained nuts, orange, garlic, nut water, and soy sauce. If the nuts you use are salted, only add 2 Tbs soy sauce to start so your dressing isn’t too salty.
Then combine the nuts and the other dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until only slightly chunky (or add a bit more water if you want a smoother dressing).
Finally, put it all together: prepare your salad–add the noodles and veggies and top with the dressing. Feel free to substitute or add vegetables (the more colors the better)!
Here’s the final beauty shot! Healthy and pretty!
And don’t forget the asparagus (I just steamed these on the stovetop and then sprinkled them with grated parmesan cheese and a little truffle salt).
