Garden Bounty Asian Noodle Salad

Last year, I serendipitously clicked on a link that my friend Katrina has posted to her facebook. Lucky for me, Katrina knows good food! The link led me to the Pioneer Woman blog that catalogs everything from cooking, gardening, home ideas, homeschooling, and more.

Ree, the blogger has some really great recipes. I have only tried a couple of them, but they were both fabulous and I can't wait to try more! The first one I tried-the one that I fatefully found from Katrina's fb post-is the "Asian Noodle Salad" that uses fresh veggies. Ree designed the recipe around her current garden bounty, but if you don't have a garden you could just raid the produce department at your local grocery. When I made this, I did a combo of crops from my garden and the local farmer's market. Pick whatever noodles and veggies are your favorite, but in my opinion the must have veggies are red/yellow bell peppers, bean sprouts and spinach. I know that none of us have garden bounties yet, but in honor of gardening and the spring and summer that is soon arriving I thought this would be a great recipe to share!

The secret bang to this recipe is the combo of the salad and noodles and the lip licking, oh so good dressing (so don't skimp on making it to opt for buying some not as good substitute when you are at the grocery raiding their produce).

The recipe is below, but you should really check out Ree's recipe because it has step by step instructions and lots of fun pics (including the pic I borrowed from her page for this post). Yum!

Recipe

Ingredients:

Salad

• 1 pkg. noodles (cooked, rinsed, and cooled)


• 1/2 head thinly sliced napa cabbage


• 1/2 head thinly sliced purple cabbage


• 1/2 bag baby spinach


• 1 whole red bell pepper, sliced julienne style


• 1 whole yellow bell pepper, sliced julienne style


• 1 whole orange or green bell pepper, sliced julienne style


• 1 bag/container bean sprouts


• chopped cilantro (up to 1 bunch, to taste)


• 3 whole scallions, sliced


• 1/2 onion, chopped


• 3 whole cucumbers, peeled and sliced


• 1 can (about 10 oz. whole cashews, lightly toasted in skillet

For Dressing

• 1 whole lime, juiced


• 8 Tablespoons olive oil


• 8 Tablespoons soy sauce


• 2 Tablespoons sesame oil


• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar


• 3 Tablespoons fresh ginger, finely chopped


• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped


• 2 whole hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped


• chopped cilantro

Preparation

Mix salad ingredients together. Whisk dressing ingredients together and pour over salad. Mix noodles and veggies together with tongs or hands and gobble it up!

*Note: dressing keeps for up to three days before serving (without cilantro)