I’ve been making this salad three times a week this month…it’s the perfect way to pack in a bunch of veggies while sneaking in some delicious carbs. And the best part is that this salad can be made completely gluten-free!
I’ve always been one of those people who loves making salads – I think fresh veggies are so yummy and I’ve always enjoyed experimenting with homemade dressing recipes. When I started adding vermicelli noodles to this particular salad, which has a yummy soy lime vinaigrette, it was a complete game-changer. So I wanted to share it with all of you!
Summery Vermicelli Noodle Salad
Enjoy this salad as a side or a main on a warm summer day!
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 7 oz vermicelli noodles (~2 cups when cooked)
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- 1/2 cucumber
- 8 baby carrots (or 2 whole carrots)
- 1 tomato
- 1 red onion
- 5 handfuls of mixed greens
- 1 can chickpeas, drained
For the dressing:
- 1/2 cup oil*
- 1/3 cup tamari**
- Juice of 3 limes
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Directions
- Cook the noodles: boil 8 cups of water in a kettle, place the raw noodles in a large bowl, and cover the noodles with the boiled water. Cover the bowl with a lid and let the noodles sit for 5-7 minutes
- Drain the noodles: pour noodles into a sieve (not a colander, as the noodles will fall through the holes), rinse thoroughly with cold water, and press excess water out through the sieve
- Chop the peppers, cucumber, carrots, tomato, and red onion in long, thin slices
- Make the dressing: combine the oil, tamari, lime juice, and chopped garlic in a jar and shake thoroughly
- Serve the salad:
- Put your mixed greens in a large bowl, place the vermicelli noodles on top, and arrange veggies in any way you like
- Sprinkle on the chickpeas and pour the dressing over the salad
- Feel free to toss the salad if you want – I tend to present and eat it un-tossed, but it’s entirely up to you!
*I love the flavour of olive oil and I use it in all of my dressings, but some people prefer a milder flavour (like avocado oil or sunflower oil), so use whichever kind you enjoy most
**Tamari is a delicious type of soy sauce that uses little or no wheat – to me, the flavour is a million times better than traditional soy sauce.
I always buy gluten-free tamari so that I can easily make recipes gluten-free.
If you’re hanging out on your own or with few others during quarantine, you might not want to make a salad for 4 people. So I suggest cooking the noodles, chopping all the veggies, and making the dressing, and then storing them all 3 in separate containers in the fridge – that way you have a salad ready to go anytime you want to have one!
xo – M
Plantiful Kitchens 