Spicy Vietnamese Noodle Salad with Cucumber and Carrots

Summary

Ingredients

For the sauce: (Nuoc cham sauce)

• 5 cloves garlic
• 5 chilli pepper (s), red, hot
• 1 large lemon (only the juice)
• 5 tablespoon fish sauce
• 5 tablespoon rice vinegar, light
• 100 ml water
• 50 g suar, preferably brown

For the salad:

• 200 g noodles (rice noodles), thin
• 1 large cucumber (s)
• 2 medium carrot (s)
• 2 spring onions, alternatively shallots or red onions
• 50 g bean sprouts, fresh, alternatively from the jar
• 3 chilli pepper (s), red, medium hot, or hot, depending on your taste
• 10 coriander leaves, cut into fine strips
• 10 mint leaves, cut into fine strips

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Instructions

1. For the Nuoc cham sauce, peel the garlic and cut into fine cubes. Halve the chili peppers lengthways, core and wash, then cut into fine cubes. Squeeze the lemons. Put the fish sauce with vinegar, water, sugar, garlic and chilli cubes in a small saucepan and heat slowly, but do not boil. Remove the liquid from the heat and let it cool down, then stir in the lemon juice. The sauce can be filled in a screw-top jar and kept tightly closed in the refrigerator for several days.
2. For the pasta salad, soak the rice noodles in warm water for 10 minutes.
3. In the meantime, cut the cucumber in half and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. Wash and peel the carrots. Cut or slice the cucumber halves and carrots into fine strips. Cut the spring onions into fine rings, if you are using shallots or onions, cut them into fine cubes or half rings. Clean the bean sprouts, cutting off the brown roots. Put the sprouts in a sieve and pour hot water over them, drain well. Wash the chili peppers and cut into rings.
4. Put the pasta out of the soaking water in a colander and drain, then cook in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente. Rinse with cold water and drain. If you like, you can shorten the pasta a little with kitchen scissors.
5. Mix all ingredients in a bowl with 6 tablespoon Nuoc cham sauce and sprinkle with the herb strips.
6. Use the rest of the sauce as a dip.