Glass Noodle Salad

Super easy 5 minutes salad for summer, glass noodle salad. This savory and spice salad can be the best side dish for meat dishes.

What’s Glass Noodles

Glass noodles(also known as cellophane noodles, 粉丝, fen si) are a group of noodles that are commonly made of different types of starches, such as mung bean starch, sweet potato starch, potato starch, cassava starch, and so on. For glass noodles made of mung bean, the noodles appear to be round, thin, long, and translucent sticks. Sweet potato noodles are usually in light brown color and are a little thicker than those made of mung bean. Glass noodles made of sweet potatoes get two Chinese names as fen tiao(粉条) and hongshufen(红薯粉).

Glass noodles are widely popular in Asian and southeastern Asian countries. In Korea, dangmyeon (sweet potato starch noodle) is quite popular. They are known as tanghoon (冬粉) In Malaysia . In Thailand, the famous dish yam wun sam, a spicy salad, is made of glass noodles, minced pork, and shrimp.

Are glass noodles and rice vermicelli the same?

You may wonder what’s the difference between glass noodles and rice and vermicelli because they look similar in appearance. Both of them are gluten-free. Starch is the main ingredient for glass noodles while rice flour is the ingredient for vermicelli. And rice vermicelli are usually white instead of translucent.

Related: Singapore Mei Fun, Pork Mei Fun

What is the taste of glass noodles?

Glass noodles are plain on their own because starch is plain and tasteless. But the key feature of glass noodles is that they can perfectly absorb the flavors of other ingredients and seasonings. The flavor of glass noodles greatly depends on what kind of ingredients and seasonings are added to dishes. The texture of cooked glass noodles is soft and you even don’t need to chew them.

How to cook glass noodles?

Usually, you get glass noodles in dried forms. Firstly we should soak them in hot water to soften them or blanch them in hot water for 10 seconds, then rinse them under cold water for later cooking. Sweet potato noodles take a longer time to soften and cook.

Other interesting dishes

Glass noodles can be cooked in various ways-stir-frying, soups and salad.

• In Chinese cuisine, there is a delicacy made of glass noodles, which is known as Ants Climbing a Tree(蚂蚁上树, ma yi shang shu). Although the name of this dish sounds a little frightening, you will overcome to have a taste if you know the main ingredients. It seems that the glass noodles covered with minced pork are just like lots of ants on a tree.
• You can add some glass noodles to chicken soup or other soups you like.
• Glass noodle salad is the simplest way of using glass noodles in cooking.
• You can also choose to use it as a bottom ingredient for poached seafood.

How to make glass noodle salad

Prepare the glass noodles

• Firstly put 200g glass noodles into a bowl, and add hot water into the bowl until all the noodles are soaked in the water. The temperature of hot water can be about 50℃, and after the noodles are softened, drain them out of the water.
• Add water into a pot, boil the water and put the noodles into the pot, and blanch for about 15 seconds. Then transfer the noodles out and rinse them under cold water for later cooking.

Prepare salad sauce

Then transfer the glass noodles into a bowl, put the shredded cucumber into the bowl, add chili peppers and garlic, and add light soy sauce, vinegar, salt, sesame oil, chili oil, and white sugar, sprinkle the scallion and coriander, and then mix all the ingredients and seasonings evenly, you will get a delicious salad!

Tips:

1. you can cut the noodles into shorter pieces with a kitchen scissor so that it will be convenient for you to eat after softened.
2. Add other vegetables such as carrots, bean sprouts, black fungus, and so on. But you should first cook the vegetables you choose and cool them down for making the salad.