I've been making a lot of curries lately. The weather is turning to summer and I suppose that I wanted to get in all of my hot food fixes all at once! Although it's finally pretty warm. Wisconsin routinely hovers around the 80s and 90s throughout the season. So, I'm looking for something similar to curry without actually being a hot food. One of my favorite summer salads consists of tossing all of my fresh produce into a vermicelli salad with tamari, rice vinegar, and peanuts.
I originally started making these with tahini. Although tahini is really just an overpriced peanut butter. So, I've decidedly turned to using just peanut butter, instead. I'm honestly not that big a fan of sesame seeds, which is what tahini is made of. I really do prefer the taste of peanuts. So, it makes sense to just use peanut butter, instead. I also tend to have a plethora of peanuts lying around. Which means that I always have the option to toss peanuts on top as a garnish. This salad was just for me today, so I didn't bother to toast or crush up some peanuts. But it is a fun thing to do if you have company or just want to add a flare to the dish!
Gallery
Variations of Vermicelli Salad
I tend to take all of the produce that I have on hand and toss it into these vermicelli salads without much thought for what exactly I have. Salads tend to always work together. There are very few fruits and vegetables that I would specifically seek out using or not using together. It generally works incredibly well to toss everything in together. It didn't dawn on me until after I mixed it up that red bell peppers and carrots mixed with the green onions that this is a very Christmassy look for being in the middle of May! But I'm going with it. And there are a plethora of other options if being on this color theme isn't entirely for you.
This Vermicelli Salad consists of red bell peppers, carrots, onion, garlic, tahini, tamari, peanut butter, and scallions (green onions). I ordinarily just go ahead and call green onions "green onions" because it sounds a little bit hoity toity to refer to them as "scallions." I tend to go with straightforward descriptive titles. However, this one was too long to fit in the readability window. So, we're going to bourgeoisie it up today. Although feel free to mix and match in your own fruits and vegetables and do you!
Add about 4 inches of water to a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
Cook vermicelli according to the manufacturer's instructions.Vermicelli cooks very quickly. I tend to add the vermicelli and then immediately remove it from heat. Then, go on to prepare the produce. Merely sitting in the once boiling water is sufficient enough soften it enough to eat without overcooking.
Assemble Salad
Mince and chop all of the produce and add to a large bowl.
It can help to mix the tamari, rice vinegar, and peanut butter together in a separate bowl and then mix in. Although this isn't explicitly necessary as long as the peanut butter doesn't clump together.
Serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator for about an hour. I'm quite fond of this dish at room temperature or mixed in with salmon or scrambled eggs. It keeps incredibly well in the refrigerator, though. There's enough sodium and acidity in the mix to last for about a week without the produce browning. The liquid will start to separate and just need stirring before serving again.
Leave a Reply