Dear Kindness,

The polls in my IG stories say you want a Summer Cold Noodle salad! I got you, friends! You can do whatever veggies and fruits that your heart desires, and only 5-6 ingredients to make the killer sauce.

JUMP TO THE RECIPE HERE

Let me tell you why you need to make this recipe! It is especially helpful to have minimal cooking for scorching hot days in July, at the time this post is published. If you like me and you always have orphan vegetables and don’t know what to do with them, soak them in icy cold water, chop them up and they will be a good no-brainer recipe! This recipe is almost foolproof, you can’t mess it up. What you can though, is prepare the ingredients days ahead, and find the combinations that you like.

This Summer Cold Noodle bowl is a lovechild of Taiwanese Cold noodles (Liang Mian) and the bold South East Asian flavours that we love! That spring roll sauce, with thick creamy peanut butter, and the brightness of lime juice and hoisin on Vietnamese Bun. The finished sauce somehow also reminded me of peanut sauce for the Indonesian Sate ( satay), one of my weaknesses. The nuttiness of soy and sweetness of the hoisin emulate the richness of kecap manis in the sate sauce.

You will be surprised you can achieve such amazing sauce flavours with 6 ingredients only, or sometimes 5 when you are extra lazy! Lime juice and zest, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, peanut butter, water and minced garlic. I’m a “garlic in everything” type of person, but honestly, this sauce can do without it.

It will be amazing to incorporate seasonal vegetables into this salad. Corn, cucumbers, zucchini, whatever is in season will go perfect with the dressing. I added some juicy pineapples to mine to add that surprise burst of tangy sweet kick to break down the fattiness from the peanut butter. It worked so well! You can also add a form of proteins of your choice; fried tofu will go very well, chicken breast, or even ham like I used in this recipe here. I warn you; that this recipe will be on repeat! Watch the video below the recipe.

For the adventurous eaters: hear me out! This sauce will taste amazing with fruits too. Especially with any sour stone fruits, apples, pears, and of course pineapple. I’m salivating just thinking about it. In fact, this sauce has a similar characteristic and flavour to Rujak, and Indonesian Fruit salad where we cut up all kinds of fruits ( especially the sour kinds), and dip them in peanut, salt, and sugar/ sometimes with the addition of sweet soya sauce, shrimp paste, chillies, and tamarind sauce. So morish. So yes, try this recipe with fruits if you want to be mindblown!

I hope you get to try this recipe, and if you do please don’t forget to tag me @milkofthykindness on instagram.

Xx,

M