This is a refreshing Thai salad recipe to beat the heat. The light summery flavours from the lime, paired with the classic mung bean vermicelli which is both light on the palate and in the tummy.
YUM aka ยำ
This is probably not the first time you’ve heard this, but any variations of Thai salads is my favourite Thai food. Yum ยำ, refers to a salad with a spicy dressing typically with fresh herbs and bright, citrus dressing but obviously with a spoon load of chopped chillies.
The absolute beauty of this type of dish is that there’s no wrong way to “yum”. So you can yum-mify anything, hence making it a perfect fridge-cleaning recipe. The rule of yum (see what I did there 😉) is simple, all you need is garlic, chilli, lime juice, sugar and fish sauce to season. From here, you can yum anything your heart desires.
Thai Salad Game Strong
The secret to mastering a Thai salad is to understand the balance between the 3 flavours – Sour, Sweet and Salty. For anyone who argues that putting mere teaspoons of sugar into your dishes is unhealthy, I’d just encourage your to give up on sugar in teas and coffees instead. Bottom line is, you just need that teenie bit of sugar to balance out the sharpness and saltiness from the fish sauce and lime juice.
The star of the show is the mung bean vermicelli aka glass noodles, which is the most common ingredient in a yum dish you’ll find in Thailand. The bouncy texture gives a lovely texture to the mouthfeel. Moreover, it is also a healthier alternative to noodles as it is gluten-free and low in fat.
In terms of chillies, I always go for the Thai bird’s eyes because they’re nice and hot. It’s just how I usually like my salad to be. But if you’re not that great with chillies, try swapping it out for the red chillies or even take out the seeds.
Last but not least, I’ve gone for the vegetables and herbs that echoed the salads we normally get in Thailand. But again, let me remind you that there’s no wrong way to yum anything so add whatever you fancy. Though, I do feel that celery, tomatoes and onions are perfect for this recipe.
Vermicelli Salad – Yum Woonsen
Ingredients
- 50 g mung bean vermicelli
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tsp Thai bird's eye chillies
- 2 tsp coconut sugar or cane sugar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp lime juice about 1 lime
- 50 g minced pork
- ½ tsp fish sauce
- 200 mL light stock chicken or vegetable
- ¼ an onion
- ½ a tomato
- 1 stick celery leaves
Instructions
- First, get the vermicelli in a bowl of water to soak until soften.
- Meanwhile, let's start with the dressing. Chop the garlic and chillies then add to a bowl. Add the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice then stir until the sugar is dissolved. Keep tasting the dressing, be mindful that this will be diluted when poured over the salad anyways so it could taste quite strong as is. When you're happy with the balance of flavour, set it aside.
- Season the minced pork with a ½ tsp of fish sauce. In a hot saucepan, add the slight stock then the pork mince immediately. Stir well to avoid the mince clumping up.
- After the pork is cooked, this should only take 2-3 minutes, turn off the heat. Then add the soaked vermicelli noodles. Again, stirring to avoid the noodles clumping together. The residual heat from the pan will be enough to cook the noodles.
- Season the salad by adding the dressing we made earlier. Then add the thinly sliced onions, tomatoes and celery.
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Thanks!
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