Maintenance – Vermicelli Salad Bowl Recipe

My sweet sister introduced me to Vietnamese and Thai food.  She has a great taste for delicious ethnic flavors.  One of the first dishes she recommended to me was the Vermicelli Rice Bowl.  I was in heaven from the first bite.  The great thing about this dish is that it perfect for vegetarian and meat-eaters alike (just throw on some grilled shrimp or chicken and voila).  It has the freshness of a delicious salad (due to the lettuce base) but also has noodles as the “meat” of the dish.  It is just the right combination of flavors for a fantastic meal.

The thing with this recipe is that it is more of a list of ingredients rather than actual measurements.  You are basically just preparing each plate with an amount that you choose.  Here is a basic list:

Chopped romaine lettuce

A large handful of bean spouts

A large handful of Rice noodles (found at any Asian store)*

Carrots, julienned

Cucumber, cut matchstick style

Chopped mint leaves

Chopped cilantro**

* I had an Asian chef teach me the secret of “3” when preparing the noodles.  3 minutes in boiling water, then 3 minutes resting in the water with the heat turned of and then 3 minutes rinsing with cold water.  This will give it the perfect consistency without the sticky starch.

**in the picture above I decided to put the freshly chopped herbs directly into the dressing.  The taste was fine, but the herbs looked soggy and didn’t distribute evenly.  From now on I will put them directly onto the salads.

Dressing:

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup fish oil

1/2 TBS chili garlic sauce

2 TBS agave nectar


Source: WFM 1-10

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