Yum mama (Thai instant noodle salad)

Prepare: less than 30 mins
Cook: less than 10 mins
Serve: Serves 2
Dietary: Dairy-free Egg-free Nut-free

This classic Thai street food dish uses instant noodles as a base for a summery prawn and pork salad with a punchy dressing. Bonus points, it comes together in under 15 minutes!

Each serving provides 515 kcal, 30.2g protein, 78.8g carbohydrate (of which 15.5g sugars), 6.9g fat (of which 2.1g saturates), 6.1g fibre and 1.35g salt.

By Justin Tsang

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Ingredients

For the dressing

2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 bird’s-eye chillies, very finely chopped
1½ tbsp granulated or brown sugar
3–4 limes, juice only
2–3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp MSG
1 tbsp Thai chilli flakes (or 1 tsp dried red chilli flakes and 1 tsp cayenne pepper)

For the noodle salad

100g/3½oz pork mince
60g/2¼oz cooked king prawns
120g/4¼oz dried instant noodles (discard the flavour sachet)
lime wedges, to serve

For the salad

½ red onion, thinly sliced
4–5 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 celery stick, thinly sliced
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
2–3 dried wood-ear mushrooms (also known as dried black fungus), soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, drained and roughly chopped (optional)

Recipe tips

Method

To make the dressing, place all of the dressing ingredients in a large bowl and stir until combined.
To make the noodle salad, place a saucepan over a medium–high heat. Add the pork and 2 tablespoons water. Start to break up the mince with a wooden spoon and cook for 3–5 minutes, or until cooked through but not browned. There should still be some liquid in the pan. Add the prawns to the pan towards the end of cooking the mince and cook until warmed through. Transfer the mince and prawns to the bowl of dressing.
Using the same saucepan, bring some water to the boil. Cook the noodles for 1 minute less than the cooking instructions. Drain and transfer to the pork mixture in the bowl.
Add all of the salad ingredients to the noodle mixture in the bowl and toss until thoroughly combined.
Serve the noodle salad on plates with the lime wedges.