Asian Noodle Salad

View my step by step video (coming soon)

This Asian Beef Noodle Salad is perfect hot or cold, great served fresh or a tasty leftover lunch. I love to make big elaborate meals on the weekends but during the week, after a long day at work, I have very limited time to whip something out that’s fast and tasty. To help me prepare this dish at super speed without me having to worry, I’m going to use the new T-fal Optigrill to my advantage to cook my meat while I prepare my ingredients. At work, if I’ve forgotten to pack my lunch, I scoot over to my local Loblaws for their tasty Asian salad. While it’s delicious, I can only get a small container for close to 7 dollars. For about 10 dollars, I can prepare this colourful and tasty salad that will feed 4 as a side or 2 as a main. 

This concoction of Asian ingredients is what most people stock in their pantries so making the dressing ahead is very easy. It packs some crazy flavours and is used as a dressing as well as a marinade. My salad is always topped with a protein, it’s how I lured my boys into eating salads :) The nice people at Tfal sent me their Optigrill to test out and boy do I love it … or should I say my husband loves it. I now don’t have to send him out in the rain and snow to grill a piece of meat for our salads, the OptiGrill sits on my countertop looking pretty and does all the work for me!

Ingredients

2 tsps Crushed garlic

2 tsps grated ginger – when you grate ginger, grate in over a plate so you can save the ginger juice

1 small sliced shallot 

1/2 tsp palm sugar crushed

4 tbsps chilli oil

4 tbsps sesame oil

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp white pepper

2 tbps dark soya sauce

3 tbsps fish sauce

Juice of 1 lime

2 – 3 tbsps finely chopped coriander – leaves and stems

8 oz Strip loin Steak

8 oz Udon noodles

8 oz Mixed Peppers sliced

8 oz Carrots julienne

8 oz Sugar snap peas

1 lemon grass stalk

2 tbsps crushed peanuts

Process

Pound the Garlic, Ginger, Shallots and Palm Sugar together

Add the Chilli and Sesame Oil followed by the Soya and Fish Sauce

Add the Chilli flakes and White Pepper powder and freshen it up with the juice of a Lime and some chopped Coriander

Marinate the steak on both sides with 2 tsps of the prepared marinade dressing.

Peel the Lemongrass and tap it with the back of a knife to release the flavours.  

Add the Lemongrass and salt to some boiling water and cook the noodles

Drain and return to a bowl to cool

Cook the steak till medium, let it rest and slice it

Add all the veggies and marinade to the noodle bowl and toss

Add some of the steak and crushed peanuts over the noodles and serve