RAINBOW NOODLE SALAD WITH CORIANDER AND PEANUT PESTO

This baby packs a flavour punch + is filled with loads of veg to help you get your daily fix.
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Pesto
2 cups coriander leaves, firmly packed (1 large bunch – leaves, stalks, 2 well-washed roots)
1/2 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
1.5 tsp soy sauce
1/3 cup olive oil (a lightly flavoured one will be best)
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp black vinegar or rice wine vinegar could work
juice and zest of one lime
1 spring onion, roughly chopped
1/2 a hot red chilli (or a whole mild one)
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 small clove of garlic, crushed

Salad
300g noodles (rice stick, egg or even spiralized zucchini would work)
1 large carrot, spiralized or grated
1 cup of cucumber, halved and thinly sliced
2/3 cup of coriander leaves
1/2 a red chilli (finely sliced)
3 spring onions finely sliced
1 cup bean shoots
1/4 of a small red cabbage finely shredded (2.5 cups approx)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
pinch salt
3 Tbs roasted peanuts

Place cabbage in a bowl and dress with vinegar and salt, toss to combine and set aside to pickle slightly (this creates a much milder cabbage flavour and better texture for your salad).

Make pesto: Put all ingredients in a small food processor and blend until pesto consistency is reached. Taste and adjust seasoning and flavouring as required. Scrape into an airtight container.

Make salad: Cook noodles, drain & refresh briefly in cold water then drain again.
Toss with 2 Tabs of the pesto you’ve just made.
Drain cabbage, combine with noodles, coriander, carrot, cucumber, spring onion, and 2/3 of the bean shoots. Add more pesto to this mix if you want to.
Top with remaining bean shoots, the sliced chilli & peanuts. Dot another Tab of pesto around.

P.s This keeps in the fridge for lunches for a couple of days.

COCONUT CURRY NOODLE SALAD WITH CORIANDER PEANUT PESTO

This noodle salad is perfect for lunch as it can all be prepped the day before hand, makes heaps and the flavour just continues to develop as it sits together.

Ingredients
250g soba buckwheat noodles
2 carrots, spriralized
2 zucchini, spiralized
button mushrooms
sweet capsicums (I like medley of small coloured ones but any would work)
1/4 cup Spring onion
1/ cup coriander leaves

Dressing
1/2 cup coconut cream
1 Tbs Soy sauce
1 heaped tsp freshly grated ginger
2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 green chilli
juice and zest of 1 lime
1/2 cup (loosely packed) roughly chopped spring onion

Coriander and peanut pesto *
2 cups coriander leaves, firmly packed (use 1 large bunch – leaves, stalks, 2 well-washed roots)
1/2 cup roasted, unsalted, peanuts
1.5 tsp soy sauce
1/3 cup olive oil (a lightly flavoured one will be best)
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp black vinegar or rice wine vinegar could work
juice and zest of one lime
1 spring onion, roughly chopped
1/2 a hot red chilli (or a whole mild one)
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 small clove of garlic, crushed

Cook noodles according to packet directions, rinse under cold water. Combine these with the spiralised carrot and zucchini, toss until well combined.

Dressing: Place all dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor and blitz until well combined. Pour over the noodles and mix well until the dressing is evenly dispersed among the noodles.

Steam the mushrooms whole for 3 minutes, or until just tender. Use a paper towel of clean tea towel to dry them, removing any residual dirt. Then slice thinly.

Very finely slice the capsicum, combine with mushrooms & noodles: mix together evenly.

Pesto: combine ingredients in food processor: until well combined looking slightly creamy.

Serve with pesto drizzled over salad and spring onion & coriander sprinkled over top.

NOTES

You could serve this as a warm or cold salad, but if your planning on reheating maybe keep the zucchini noodles separate until after you’ve reheated the rest as they tend to turn to mush when they get over cooked. The residual heat of everything else will warm them up enough.

This noodle salad is perfect for lunch as it can all be prepped the day before hand, makes heaps and the flavour just continues to develop as it sits together. A boiled egg would be an excellent addition to this salad if you;re worried about staying full without having meat in your lunch.

You do not have to cook the mushrooms if you prefer them raw. I do think that steaming them whole like this gives them just the right amount of tenderness that they soak up the flavours of the dressing and pesto but aren’t too slippery.

* The pesto makes more than you need, but you can also use it on this salad or on any grilled meat you like. It’s even good on avocado toast.