Lisaopolis.comA Nurse's Journey to a Healthy and Balanced Life

This afternoon I decided I wanted to make some kind of new noodle dish. I thought an Asian style dish would be a nice change from our usual Italian pasta dishes. I found a recipe for Pad Thai that sounded simple to make and fairly quick, so I gave it a try. I made huge changes to it, since it really had hardly any vegetables in it, and I love vegetables.

The result was a super yummy Thai noodle dish! It was slightly spicy and very flavorful.

This was my first time cooking with rice vermicelli noodles, and I cooked them exactly according to the package instructions (place in boiling water, and remove the heat, let stand for 5 minutes, then rinse in cold water), but my noodles seemed fairly clumpy after. I used a fork to get them less clumpy, but I am still wondering if there is a trick to make the vermicelli noodles free of clumps. Any suggestions?

Here is one of my special ingredients: coconut vinegar!

Pad Thai Noodles
Adapted from allrecipes.com
*serves 4

8 oz rice vermicelli noodles
1 red bell pepper
½ small package lean ground turkey
½ lb precooked shrimp (peeled and shelled tails removed)
3 cloves garlic
3 green onion stalks
3 carrots
3 handfuls broccoli
2 stalks celery
½ vegetable bouillon cube  (dissolved in 1 cup boiling water)
½ cup organic ketchup
½ cup lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp coconut vinegar
Garlic powder
Ground black pepper
2 cups bean sprouts
Chopped peanuts to garnish

In a large frying pan brown the turkey. Meanwhile prepared all vegetables (dice and chop them). Add the green onions and garlic cloves to the browned turkey. Season with garlic powder, and ground black pepper. Add the precooked shrimp. Cook for a couple minutes. Add all the remaining vegetables (except the bean sprouts). Cook for about 5-10 minutes. Add the lime juice, ketchup, coconut vinegar, fish sauce, and dissolved bouillon cube  (in water). Stir to form a sauce. Sprinkle on more ground black pepper and garlic powder. Cook for about 15 to 20 minutes. In a large pot boil water. Once boiling at the vermicelli noodles. Remove from heat. Keep in the hot water for 5 minutes. Rinse well in cold water. With a fork separate the vermicelli noodles to get rid of any clumps. Now add the bean sprouts to the noodles (stir them in). Pour the sauce over the noodles and mix everything well. Serve hot!! ( I microwave mine again to make it steaming since the rinsing the noodles cools off the dish a bit too much I think). Garnish with peanuts.

Yesterday afternoon I was in the mood for cooking something different. I was browsing through a cookbook and a recipe took my fancy. It is called Spicy Noodle Salad. It is from the Company’s Coming Low Fat Cooking cookbook (page 121) by Jean Pare. Here is the recipe as it is in the cookbook.

Spicy Noodle Salad

Broken low-fat Chinese noodles 1 cup 250 ml

Boiling water 3 cups 750 ml

Finely shredded Chinese cabbage 3 cups 750 ml

Green onions, thinly sliced 4

Medium red pepper, finely diced 1

Thinly sliced carrot 1 cup 250 ml

Toasted Sesame seeds 1 tsp 15 ml

Canola oil 1 tsp 15 ml

Freshly grated gingerroot 2 tsp 10 ml

Garlic clove minced 1

Water ½ cup 125 ml

Chicken bouillon powder 1 tsp

Dried crushed chilies ¼ tsp 1 ml

Liquid honey 2 tbsp 30 ml

Low sodium soy sauce 2 tbsp 30 ml

Balsamic vinegar 1 tbsp 15 ml

Cornstarch 2 tsp 10 ml

Put noodles in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over noodles. Let stand for 5 minutes. Drain. Rinse with cold water. Return to bowl.

Add next 5 ingredients and toss together.

Heat oil in a small skillet or sauce pan. Sauté gingerroot and garlic for 1 minute. Add water bouillon powder, chilies, and honey. Bring to a boil.

Stir soy sauce, vinegar, and cornstarch together in a small cup until smooth. Pour into chili mixture. Stir until boiling and thickened. Pour over noodle mixture. Toss. Makes 7 cups.

I modified the recipe in several ways. First of all I used about 1 ½ cups of Chinese noodles. For the shredded cabbage I used baby boc choi for the Chinese cabbage. I used way more onion than the recipe calls for. Instead of using canola oil, I used extra virgin olive oil. There were no sesame seeds in this salad I made. We also don’t have any chicken bouillon powder in the house, so instead I used salt, pepper, and thyme. Lastly I used chipotle chili powder instead of dried chilies.

The salad was exquisite, super delicious and healthy. I also made some fried rice with it as a side dish (with sausage and egg in the fried rice). I heated up some store bought spring rolls to accompany this meal. I served these with plum sauce.

It was an amazing dinner that I will be making again.

Below are some images of the salad and the dinner.