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Glass noodle salad is a staple dish in any Thai home, so it was one of the first things I made when I left Thailand and was homesick! Glass noodle salad has wonderfully bright flavours with lots of refreshing crunchy vegetables. I guarantee it will become a favourite salad!
Many people don't know that glass noodles are actually made from mung bean starch. In Thailand they are considered to be good for those trying to lose weight. Not because they're particularly healthy (it's still just all carbs!) but because glass noodles absorb a lot of water, so you only need a little bit of noodles to fill a bowl. So at the end of the day they are lower calories per serving!
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Glass Noodle Salad (Yum Woon Sen) ยำวุ้นเส้น
- Yield: 2-3 servings
Ingredients
- 40 g dry glass noodles (bean threads)
- 1 heaping Tbsp dried shrimp
- 2 cloves garlic
- 10 sprigs cilantro, stems and leaves separated
- Thai chilies, to taste
- 1 Tbsp palm sugar, finely chopped, packed
- 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp fish sauce
- 3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 tomato, cut into wedges
- ¼ cup julienned onion
- 1 stalk Chinese celery or 2 inner small stalks and leaves of regular celery
- 100 g ground pork
- 6 medium shrimp
- ¼ cup roasted peanuts
Instructions
- Soak noodles in room temperature water for 7-10 minutes until soft and pliable. Drain, then cut the noodles with scissors 2-3 times to shorten them.
- Place dried shrimp in a small heatproof bowl, cover with hot water and let sit for 3-4 minutes to soften. You can also cover the shrimp with room temp water then microwave for 1 minute, then let it sit for a few more minutes. (If you’re using large dried shrimp, they will take longer to soften).
- Place tomato, onion and Chinese celery into a large mixing bowl. When the dried shrimp are ready, drain and pound them in a mortar and pestle until they are broken into smaller pieces. Alternately you can chop them roughly. Add dried shrimp to the mixing bowl.
- Cut cilantro stems into small chunks and place in the mortar and pestle along with garlic and chilies; pound into a paste. Add palm sugar and pound until dissolved. Add 2 Tbsp of the fish sauce and lime juice and stir to mix.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, add glass noodles and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the water with tongs (you want to keep the water) and place into a strainer to drain excess water; set aside.
- Add fresh shrimp into the remaining liquid and cook for 30-45 seconds or until they are done. Place the shrimp into the mixing bowl.
- Pour out the cooking water, leaving just enough water to cover the bottom, and return the pot back on the stove. Once the water boils, add the pork along with 1 tsp of fish sauce and stir until fully cooked. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pork from the liquid and place into the mixing bowl. Then add about 1 Tbsp of the pork cooking liquid into the mixing bowl as well.
- Add noodles into the mixing bowl, pour the dressing over and quickly toss to combine.
- Toss in cilantro leaves and plate. Sprinkle with peanuts and serve immediately!
Philippe
Sawadee Kap, thank you for posting this recipe. Yam Woon Sen beeing my favorite Thaï dish ( along with Larb Moo and Pad See Ew). I think i have everything in the fridge, i'll give it a go today!! cheers from France, Ka Pun Maï Kap 🙂
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Babe
Excellent ! I usually look up recipes and use them as guidelines, tweaking them to suit our tastes. Besides the dried shrimps, I added a couple of dried scallops, another fav asian umami flavor. As for the base dressing, I used cilantro roots which is has a lot more flavor than the stems - just pound them till they are not fibrous. But these are just individual tweaks and do not detract from your good recipe. I didn't follow any measurements as I usually cook without any ... what my late mom would say and how she taught me, cooking on the fly !
Also if you discard the first hot water scald on your dried shrimps (in my case, also the dried scallops) after the first minute, you can use the second water scald to add to your dressing.
Kind regards,
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Sa
Easy to make! And super yummy!
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Tan
Really authentic recipe. Taste like the ones i had in Thailand
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Stephen Chan
I'm not a fan of celery, both Chinese and western, but this dish is one of the rare exceptions.
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Nicole
This is one of my alltime favourit dishes. I love the celery with the salad even if I usually dont enjoy raw celery. Perfect dish for a potluck, my friends and family love it as well.
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LayChin Nicholson
A delightful & very appetizing dish. So easy to put together.
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