This is a classic Yum Woon Sen recipe turned completely meatless. It is a cold Thai salad with thin glass noodles, tomatoes, onion, celery, chili pepper, cilantro, and dry roasted peanuts in a simple, fresh salad dressing. If you are looking for a sweet, spicy, and savory cold summer salad that is ready in 15 minutes, try this aromatic Thai noodle salad.
Cook or soak glass noodles according to package instructions. Drain water when they are ready. Keep a bit of the cooking water.
Peel and slice onion thinly.
Peel and mince the garlic finely.
Wash and slice chili peppers.
If you have raw peanuts, dry roast them over medium heat in a frying pan without oil. It will take 1-2 minutes. Shake the pan or use a spatula to stir frequently.
Wash and thinly slice celery stalks similar to matchsticks (aka julienne style).
Wash and slice tomatoes. You can discard the seeds for a nicer finish.
Separate the cilantro leaves from the stems. Don't discard the stems, you will add that to the salad as well.
Let's mix the salad!
In a small bowl, mix soy sauce (for gluten-free, use tamari), freshly squeezed lime juice, and sugar of your choice.
Now take a large salad bowl and add first sliced onion, minced garlic, sliced tomato, julienned celery, cilantro leaves, and stems. Gently mix them.
Add cooked glass noodles. Stir again.
Add pre-mixed salad dressing and some pasta water to the salad and stir well.
Add the dry-roasted peanuts and slices of chilies. Stir well. Ready to serve it!