Make a Vietnamese-inspired vermicelli noodle salad with spiralized zucchini and carrot for the perfect, refreshing summer cold noodle dish. This post is sponsored by Hamilton Beach Canada. This post contains affiliate links.
Vietnamese food has always been one of my favourite cuisines–if I’m out for dinner, you’ll probably find me at one of my favourite Vietnamese spots in Toronto. I love the combination of sweet/tangy/savoury you’ll find in many of their dishes.
There are certain Vietnamese dishes that I’ll never be able to recreated in my own kitchen, but this Vietnamese-inspired vermicelli salad is something that I’ve wanted to cook forever.
But I always wanted to add more vegetables. Enter, the Hamilton Beach 4-in-1 electric spiralizer. It makes adding simple zoodles (zucchini noodles) and spiralized carrot a breeze–adding both texture and flavour to this rice noodle salad.
This is the perfect compact spiralizer for apartment living. It takes up barely any space yet holds 6-cups of spiralized veggies. The best part? It’s electric.
Before this I’ve only ever used the manual spiralizers and didn’t love them so I was reluctant to purchase one for my own kitchen.
This electric version couldn’t be more simple (it does the two zucchinis and the two carrots for this salad recipe within minutes). I’m so glad that I waited to find the perfect spiralizer. (And right now it’s on sale on Amazon for under $30)!
How to make a Vietnamese salad dressing
At its simplest, Vietnamese salad dressing is a mixture of water, sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, chilis and garlic. This creates a base that is a staple in Vietnamese cooking.
This dressing was also inspired by a piece I read about nuac cham–a famous Vietnamese dipping sauce(which can also be used as a dressing) from Serious Eats. I didn’t add the hot water, but instead used the acidity in the lime juice and rice vinegar to dissolve the sugar.
I also added a little bit of canola oil, mainly to create a more velvety mouthfeel without adding any additional flavour–you could really use any neutral flavoured oil here.
The complexity of flavour in this vermicelli dish is unbelievable–I find myself inspired by go-to Vietnamese ingredients (like fish sauce, vermicelli noodles and fresh herbs) in a lot of my recent recipes. I’m hoping to take a class in Vietnamese cuisine soon to learn even more.
The aromatics in this recipe come from fresh herbs; basil, mint and cilantro to be specific. These add herbaceous notes to the dish. I like to top mine with salted peanuts for extra crunch–you could also serve these with shredded pork or chicken.
Vermicelli Salad with Spiralized Vegetables
Ingredients
- ⅓ of a 454g pkg. vermicelli noddles, about 130g
- 2 carrots, peeled and spiralized
- 2 zucchinis, spiralized
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced
- ⅓ cup chopped mint
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
- ¼ cup thinly sliced basil
Dressing:
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- ¼ tsp hot pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp Chopped salted peanuts for topping, optional
Instructions
- Cook vermicelli noodles to package directions, when they are still warm, toss with spiralized zucchini and carrot, green onion and chopped herbs.
- In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients for the dressing until sugar is dissolved.
- Pour dressing over rice noodle salad and toss to coat.
- Serve with salted peanuts.
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