It’s not difficult to pick up that I love making meatballs and grilled them. After all it was not too long ago that I made Thai red curry with grilled lemon spiced lamb meatballs and okra.
Well today, my mince chicken has gone through the similar treatment: Thai style, meatballs and grilled. But this time I’ve coupled these tasty meatballs with rice noodle salad.
Yes, I am obsessed with meatballs and you know what, it is one obsession that I can live with. *wink*
This salad has lots of flavours: the crowd pleasing sweet chilli sauce, the tanginess from the white vinegar, the aromatic and very mildly bitter fresh lemongrass (yes you can eat lemongrass raw), coupled with rice noodles (vermicelli) which naturally soak up the flavours around them, citrusy fresh coriander leaves and last but not least, Thai red curry spiced grilled chicken meatballs. I’ve also added paper thin (sliced using a vegetable peeler) cucumber and carrots to further enhance the colour and texture to the salad.
Needless to say, I am really into Thai style dishes lately. You can’t believe how much fresh coriander I have been keeping in my fridge. It’s crazy! Anyway, I hope you’ll like this rice noodle salad recipe. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 500g chicken mince
- 1 slice of bread
- 1 Tbsp Thai red curry paste (I use this brand for this recipe)
- 1 tsp salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 125g dried rice noodles
- Hot water to blanch the noodles
- 1 lemongrass (the tender white part only), finely sliced
- 1 small French shallot, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup sweet chilli sauce
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 300g cucumbers, thinly sliced with a peeler
- 300g carrots, thinly sliced with a peeler
- A handful of fresh coriander leaves
Instructions
- In a small bowl, wet a slice of bread with some water and mash it into fine pieces with a fork. Alternatively you can process the bread in a food processor (without water) until resembles breadcrumbs.
- In a mixing bowl, add chicken mince, bread pieces (or fresh breadcrumbs), a tablespoon of Thai red curry paste, salt and pepper. Knead the meat dough until pliable.
- Roll a tablespoon of the meat dough into a ball and repeat this step to the remaining meat dough.
- Heat up a non-stick stir fry pan over a medium flame with a teaspoon of oil. Brown the meatballs until all surface has turned golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- While waiting for the meatballs to be cooked, I'd start prepping the salad ingredients.
- Start by re-hydrating the rice noodles in hot water in a bowl for about 10 minutes or until they are softened. Drain the water and set the noodles aside.
- Slice the lemongrass and French shallots. Add them to a separate bowl with sweet chilli sauce and white vinegar. Set aside.
- Peel the cucumber and carrot into paper thin slices, using a vegetable peeler.
- Add half of the dressing into the rice noodles and toss to mix evenly. Add sliced cucumber and carrots and toss gently.
- Divide the noodle salad in 4 small plates (as appetizers or two as main meal) , top with the meatballs and coriander leaves (roughly torn). Drizzle with the remaining sweet chilli dressing and serve immediately.
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Oooh that looks like a wonderful noodle salad! Love the Thai flavors in here, and rice noodles are my favorite 🙂
I love rice noodles especially in salad especially the texture as well as its ability to absorb flavours. 🙂
Looks yum, I definitely have to give this one a go! Thanks
Totally loving the look and sound of these thai style meatballs. I have never made something like this before, so you can definitely consider I will be recreating the recipe!