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5 June, 2016

Yum Woon Sen (salad)

Posted in : Salad on by : admin

Yum Woon Sen is a salad based on glass noodles. These are noodles that are white when uncooked and dry, but that will turn clear when they are placed in water and cooked. They are sold under various names, including glass noodles, silver noodles, cellophane noodles and bean thread noodles.

A popular way of adding more protein to the salad is to place cooked shrimp on top right before its served. It’s common practice in many restaurants, both in Thailand and abroad.

Ingredients list for 2 big servings

  • ½ cup peanuts
  • 2 limes
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • ½ teaspoon sugar
  • 2 ounces (uncooked and dry) glass noodles
  • Water to cook the noodles
  • ¼ cup dried shrimp
  • ½ yellow onion
  • 1 cup Chinese Celery (or ordinary celery)
  • 6 sprigs cilantro
  • 3 Thai chili pepper
  • 2 tablespoons garlic-infused oil

Instructions

Roasting peanuts

If you are using raw peanuts, you need to roast them. Heat up a large enough skillet over high medium-low heat and roast the peanuts until they are light brown. This will usually take 5-8 minutes. Shake them around a bit while roasting to prevent them from getting burned.

Making the salad dressing

Squeeze the juice out of the 2 limes into a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and ½ teaspoon of sugar, and mix all three ingredients together.

Cooking the glass noodles

  1. Bring water to a boil in a pot or in an electrical water heater (tea water maker).
  2. Break the noodles into smaller pieces (to make the salad easier to eat) and place the noodles in a heat resistant bowl.
  3. Pour the hot water over the noodles.
  4. Leave to soak for 5-7 minutes. You may have to move the noodles around a bit to make sure everything gets soaked.
  5. When the noodles are cooked, strain them well and put them in a large mixing bowl.

Frying shrimp

Heat up a skillet over medium heat and fry the dried shrimps until they are crispy and brown. The frying will usually take around one minute, but will vary with the size of the shrimp.

Prepping greens

  • Slice the onion from top to bottom to make crescent pieces.
  • Cut the celery into thin 1 ½ inch long pieces.
  • Chop the cilantro sprigs.
  • Chop the chili peppers.

Assembling the salad

  1. Coat the noodles with garlic-infused oil.
  2. Coat the noodles with some of your salad dressing. Save the rest of the dressing, you might want to add some more before serving the salad.
  3. Add peanuts, dried shrimp, onion, celery, cilantro and chili to the noodles and toss well.
  4. Taste. Add more salad dressing if necessary.
  5. Serve.