I have been inspired to recreate this recipe since I tried it at a vegan restaurant in Koh Phangan, Thailand. The place is called “The Street Vegan House”, and they make the most delicious vegan food on the island. The salad is called “Japan” on the menu, but I called my version “Rainbow” because it is full of vibrant ingredients.
This delicious salad contains various ingredients with different textures and colours. As a base, I used rice noodles topped with fresh vegetables like carrot, cucumber, daikon (winter radish), seaweed, beetroot, red cabbage and sprouts.
If you’re looking for a way to make your salad more delicious and interesting, you might want to try adding mushrooms and shallots to it. Dried Shiitake mushrooms are a great choice because they have a meaty texture and flavour that can add depth to your salad.
To make the mushrooms taste meaty, you can use different methods, but I’ll describe a simple and quick way to prepare them for this dish. For an even better taste, you can add sesame dressing to your salad. This dressing brings out all the flavours and makes everything taste even better.
What’s more, this salad is very healthy because it contains nutrients, fibre, and antioxidants that are good for your body. You can enjoy it on its own or pair it with plant-based protein. And, you can share it with your friends and family as a side dish during a meal.
The unique taste and variety will blow everyone away!
Eating various plants will diversify the biome and provide a wide variety of phytochemicals that become biologically active in our bodies, functioning as antioxidants with powerful anti-inflammatory properties.
Suppose you are new to the concept of eating the rainbow. In that case, I have a blog post discussing the most researched antioxidants and their benefits, along with a downloadable chart to help you stay on track with your daily intake of colourful fruit and veggies.
Rainbow Noodle Salad
Ingredients
Noodles:
- 2 cups rice noodles cooked
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp salt
Salad:
- 1/2 carrot shreded
- 1/2 cucumber shreded
- 1/2 white radish sreded
- 1/3 cup seaweed dehydrated
- 1/2 beetroot shreded
- 1/4 red cabbage shreded
- 1 handful sprouts to garnish
- 1 tbsp dried shallots to garnish
Dressing:
- 1 tbsp olive oil estra virgin
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 1/2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic minced
Meaty mushrooms:
- 2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms rehydrated
- 1 tbsp cacao butter or olive oil
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp marmite
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
Meaty musrooms:
- Rehydrate dried shiitake mushrooms soaking them in cold water overnight in the fridge.
- Next day, wipe them clean and cut off tough stems. Slice the mushrooms.
- Add cacao butter (or oil) to a hot pan, when it starts foaming, add mushrooms.
- Saute the mushrooms, often stirring, for about 2 minutes. To achieve a perfect meaty texture, give mushrooms a squish using another smaller-sized pan.
- Sprinkle the mushrooms with spices. Keep cooking them, stirring, until they are tender.
Noodles:
- Soak rice noodles in clean warm water for 10-15 minutes. Drain, then add sesame oil and salt to prevent noodles from sticking to each other.
Salad:
- Shred all the vegetables apart from seaweed using a hand grater.
- Rehydrate seaweed by putting it in a bowl with water for 15 minutes. Drain and cut in smaller pieces.
- To a large bowl, add cooked noodles, followed by all the vegetables, meaty mushrooms, sprouts and dried shallots.
Dressing:
- To a small glass jar, add all the ingredinets. Shake well and then pour into the salad.
- Mix salad well and serve immediately.
