Spicy Rice Noodle And Cucumber Salad
Rice noodles are a shortcut dream as you don’t have to cook them – a quick soak in hot water and they're good to go. They’re also an excellent vehicle for strong flavours as they don’t have much flavour of their own. Biang biang-style hand-pulled noodles are so delicious, soft, chewy, spicy and very satisfying – and this recipe is enough for two, but can be very easily doubled. For a more authentic take on the hand-pulled noodles use fresh lasagne sheets cut into thick strips and boiled in a saucepan of water with a little bicarbonate of soda to give them a little chew.
Serves
2
Total Time
10 Minutes
Ingredients
2 nests of vermicelli rice noodles (about 100 g/31/2 oz dried weight)
3 tsp of chilli crisp oil (like Chiu Chow), plus extra to serve (optional)
1 tbsp of toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp of rice wine or dry sherry, such as fino
½ tsp of caster sugar
2 spring onions, finely chopped
½ cucumber, roughly chopped
Handful of salted peanuts, roughly chopped
Method
Step 1
Soak the noodles in a large heatproof bowl of boiling water for 10 minutes, or until soft.
Step 2
Meanwhile, in a serving bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients, except the peanuts. Stir and taste for seasoning, adding more sugar, vinegar, soy and salt to adjust the flavours to taste.
Step 3
Drain the noodles and add to the bowl. Toss to combine, then leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving with chopped peanuts and extra chilli sauce, if you like.
The Shortcut Cook All-in-One by Rosie Reynolds (Hardie Grant, £16.99) Photography © Clare Winfield
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