My children have always specialized in coming down with an illness around 5:00 on a Friday, when doctor’s offices have just closed for the weekend. Sure enough, I came home from my last day of school Friday to find Phil administering a Covid test to Ben. Thankfully, it was negative, but he was drippy enough that I didn’t want him anywhere near food prep for awhile. This meant I got to call the food shots while Ben was benched. (Bwa-ha-ha!!) I gained his approval for summer roll salad: cold udon noodles, peanut sauce, cucumbers, red pepper, shrimp, lettuce, carrot, sugar snap peas, and cilantro. Really, you can throw in anything you like. This was just today’s version for us. Depending on ingredient availability and whim, you could add: chicken satay (see recipe index); an egg that has been scrambled and cooked flat like a crepe, rolled, and sliced into ribbons; chopped peanuts; mango slices; bean sprouts; shredded red cabbage; pickled red onions; zucchini, cut into matchsticks; avocado slices…you get the idea!
Summer Roll Salad
12 ounces udon noodles
Hot Peanut Sauce* (double the recipe below for this amount of noodles)
1 1/2 pounds cooked shrimp, thawed
1 head romaine lettuce, shredded
3 carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into matchsticks
1 red pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into matchsticks
1 handful sugar snap peas, cut diagonally
1/2 bunch cilantro leaves
Cook udon noodles according to package directions, drain, rinse with cold water, and chill in refrigerator. Double the peanut sauce recipe below, and once the sauce has cooled, mix about 2/3 of it with the noodles, until they are well sauced. Reserve the rest for individual servings.
Serve the salad by plopping the noodles in the middle of a large platter. Build stripes or sections of other salad ingredients until your platter is full. Using tongs, individuals serve themselves customized mixes, topping with more peanut sauce, if desired.
*Hot Peanut Sauce
3 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
3 tablespoons milk or water
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 cloves minced garlic
1 small shake of cayenne or sriracha (or to taste)
juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
1 bay leaf
Make paste with peanut butter and milk (or water) in small sauce pan. Add remaining ingredients and bring to simmer. Remove from heat and let stand up to several hours to blend flavors. Remove bay leaf before serving.
It’s about the healthiest one-dish meal I can think of, it is super tasty, and this amount fed us for days. Since my main impediment to more frequent salad eating is laziness, it was pretty great to pull it out of the fridge the next day, and boom, instant side dish! It must also be good for what ails you, because Ben had three servings, only slowing his pace when he realized we were not granting him unlimited shrimp privileges. If you are worried about Ben’s health, fret not, this meal was Sunday, and in the meantime, he made a full recovery and had a marvelous day at Knoebels today! Summer? This is how we roll!