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.
If you like Thai recipes, here are our favorite Thai oyster mushroom noodle stir fry and Thai red curry with tofu. Or try its stir fry cousin pad woon sen.
What is Yum Woon Sen?
The word “yum” in Thai means salad and “woon sen” means glass noodles. It is a cold salad dish that is a variation of the popular, quick stir-fried dish called pad woon sen. The classic yum woon sen is usually served with precooked seafood, most commonly shrimp, but in this vegan recipe, we made it extra light and refreshing with vegetable ingredients only.
The salad dressing is sweet and salty but rich and aromatic at the same time. Most Thai sauces like to include ingredients to have all 4 flavors represented in a harmonic way. It is served with silky smooth glass noodles which are perfect to accompany the crunchy texture of the veggies.
Subscribe to our newsletters and download it right now.
Ingredients
This Thai glass noodle salad is a perfect base recipe to which you can add your favorite vegetables and proteins. We picked 12 ingredients to make this spicy cold salad recipe.
- Glass noodles -> It is also called cellphone noodles or mung bean vermicelli or even bean thread noodles. They are very thin, silky, and delicate. Similar to pad thai noodles which are made of rice. They are supposed to be gluten-free compared to many other types of noodles that are sadly not. Here is our article about which noodles are gluten-free.
- Onion
- Garlic
- Chili peppers
- Tomatoes
- Chinese celery (like this one) or regular if you can’t find it
- Roasted peanuts
- Sugar -> any really, but if you need it to be vegan, please don’t use honey and choose from these honey substitutes
- Soy sauce -> if you need to eat gluten-free, please choose one of these gluten-free soy sauce substitutes
- Lime juice
- Fresh cilantro leaves
🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Instructions
- 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.
- In a small bowl, mix soy sauce (for gluten-free, use tamari), freshly squeezed lime juice, and sugar of your choice.
Let’s mix the salad!
- 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!
Variations
What else can you add to this vegan yum woon sen recipe? Anything you fancy and anything that can be eaten raw. Here are some of our suggestions:
- Carrots -> Cut them into matchsticks like in our sauteed julienned carrots recipe.
- Cucumber -> Cut them also into thin matchsticks.
- Bell peppers -> Slice them as thin as you can.
- Purple cabbage -> We do love a crunchy shredded cabbage salad like coleslaw, but cabbage can be a great addition if you don’t go overboard.
- Salad greens -> Any fresh green leaves can work here. Even mixed greens which usually include iceberg lettuce, spinach, and arugula. Cut them small to complement the size of the veggies in the salad.
- Sprouts -> We love to add a handful of mung bean sprouts or any other ones we have at hand. They are delicious and unique additions to any cold salad recipe.
- Edamame beans – If you love to add extra protein, try to add your favorite legumes.
- Vegan ground pork – It does need a little bit of extra prep work, but we can’t recommend enough trying the vegan ground pork using TVP from our Vietnamese pizza recipe.
FAQs and substitutions
Is Yum Woon Sen gluten-free?
- Glass noodles are typically made of mung beans or rice, which should be gluten-free. To be on the safe side and to avoid cross-contamination choose certified products. Read our article on which noodles are gluten-free.
- Soy sauce is sadly not gluten-free, so you need to use tamari, liquid aminos, or other gluten-free substitutes.
How to store it?
It is hard to store any salad dishes and this Thai glass noodle salad is no exception. Since there are not many ingredients that can go bad quickly, you can store it in the fridge for up to 1-2 days in an airtight container.
Allergen info
This Thai glass noodle salad recipe is meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free.
- Vegan – All ingredients are supposed to be vegan.
- Nut-free – If you need this recipe to be nut-free, substitute roasted peanuts with sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds.
- WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) – The only non-compliant ingredient is sugar. However, coconut sugar and date paste is allowed. If you use date paste please expect that you will taste the dates in the salad dressing.
- Gluten-free – Always cook with certified products especially if you buy glass noodles. Read our article titled “are noodles gluten-free?” if you want to know more about the different noodle types. Soy sauce is also not gluten-free, so choose tamari or liquid aminos.
- Soy-free – The only ingredient that contains soy is soy sauce (as well as tamari by the way). You should choose liquid aminos or coconut aminos if you want this yum woon sen recipe to be completely soy-free.
More vegan Asian recipes
THANK YOU so much for visiting our website. Please comment below if you have tried this recipe. We LOVE hearing from you! If you loved the recipe, please don’t forget to give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ RATING. We appreciate all of our readers.
⇒ GET OUR FREE 7-DAY VEGAN MEAL PLAN E-BOOK NOW! OR CHECK OUT ALL VEGAN MEAL PLAN RECIPES! ⇐
Yum Woon Sen {Vegan} (Thai Glass Noodle Salad)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 oz Glass noodles -> which noodles are gluten-free
- 1 Onion medium
- 1 Tomatoes medium
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 Red chilies small
- 2 Celery stalk
- ¼ cup Dry roasted peanuts
- 6-8 sprigs Cilantro
- 3 Tbsp Soy sauce -> gluten-free soy sauce substitutes
- 2 tsp Cane sugar
- 4 Tbsp Lime juice
- ¼ cup Reserved cooking water
Instructions
Preparation
- 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!
Leave a comment