This is the summer salad that my boys request most often.  The colours, flavours and textures of this dish make you long for seconds every time.

The key is in the dressing which combines fresh zippy lime juice with umami rich fish and soya sauce and then a balance of both sweet and heat.   You can use whatever veggies you have in your crisper but a rainbow of colours always makes a dish more appealing.  If you make one batch of the dressing you mights as well double it immediately.  It’s not only delicious for this noodle salad but works equally well as a marinade on meat or fish.

Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

Marinade (makes 1 cup)

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup lime juice

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp finely chopped garlic

½ tsp ground pepper

1 fresh Thai chili, thinly sliced

The salad

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage

1 cup thinly sliced red pepper

½ cup sliced snap peas

½ cup julienne carrots

3 green onions thinly sliced

12 basil leaves, roughly chopped

12 mint leaves

225g rice noodles

1 Tbsp canola oil

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a small bowl stir together all the ingredients for the marinade and store until ready to use.

2. Place the chicken into a glass bowl and pour in ¼ cup of the marinade on. Store in the fridge while you prep the remaining ingredients.

3. Add the cabbage, red pepper, snap peas, carrots and green onions, chop the basil and mint (or tear by hand) and add to the other vegetables. Add ¼ cup of the marinade to the vegetables.

4. Boil a large pot of water and add the rice noodles cook for 2min or according to the package directions. Drain and rinse the noodles really well.

5. Add the noodles to the bowl with veggies and toss.  Add the remainder of the dressing and toss.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

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