I woke up on this hot and humid Friday not having any precise plans for the day. This is a very rare thing to happen, and I didn’t quite know how to handle it. So, went for my usual morning run first, and on my way along the river Main, I decided I’m going to shoot a new blog post once I get home – after all, I haven’t posted anything here this week yet. I didn’t want to go food shopping either, so thought about something I could make with all the leftovers which summed up during a week of cooking, mainly an almost over-ripe mango.
That’s when I remembered the soba noodle salad with cucumber, mango and honey-glazed prawns I posted last summer. It tasted almost too good to be true, so I decided to make something similar today. I must be an absolute freak (or maybe just a real foodie) for having ANY of the ingredients mentioned below at home. I mean, who has rice wine vinegar, rice noodles, maple syrup, mango as well as green asparagus at home, just, well, coincidentally?
Anyway, I quickly whipped up this amazing (!!!) rice noodle salad with mango, green asparagus and peanut sauce, and after I took 300 photos (true story), edited the best ones, wrote these lines and did some other work which I didn’t want to take with me into the weekend, obviously it started raining cats and dogs, so that I could not do the one thing which I had planned for the day: cycle to Hoppenworth & Ploch to take photos for their social media accounts. Well, that’s life!
Instead, I am now going to go to the gym to life some weights and look forward to tonight’s dinner: a huge bowl of rice noodle salad with all the fresh and good things. Yay!
Have a good weekend!
Love,
Lea Lou
Rice noodle salad with mango, green asparagus and peanut sauce
For two servings.
For the peanut sauce:
1 red chili
1 garlic clove
1/2 lime
3 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 heaped tbsp peanut butter
Sea salt and black pepper, freshly ground
For the rice noodle salad:
1/2 red onion
1/2 cucumber
1 small ripe mango
150 g green asparagus
1 tbsp sesame oil
Sea salt and black pepper, freshly ground
1 handful unsalted peanuts
150 g rice noodles
Method:
For the peanut sauce, wash, core and very finely chop the chili. Peel garlic and press or finely chop it.
Squeeze the juice of the lime.
Whisk together chili, garlic, lime juice, sesame oil, vinegar, maple syrup and peanut butter, season with salt and pepper to taste.
For the rice noodle salad, peel and thinly slice the onion.
Wash the cucumber, cut it in halves lengthwise, remove the seeds with a spoon and cut the cucumber halves into half-moon-shaped pieces.
Peel and core the mango, cut the flesh into bite-sized cubes.
Wash the asparagus, remove any fibrous ends and cut the stalks into halves crosswise. Heat the sesame oil in a pan, add the asparagus stalks and sauté from all sides until tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Roast the peanuts in a small pan without fat until golden brown, allow to cool and roughly chop the peanuts.
Add the rice noodles to a bowl, cover with boiling water and allow to soak for 5 minutes. Rinse the rice noodles and transfer to a large bowl. Add all of the prepared vegetables and thoroughly mix the salad with the peanut sauce. Divide the salad over two bowls and serve immediately.
