Thai-Style Beef Noodle Salad

We had an absolutely gorgeous weekend, which has actually extended to Monday for me! The university where I work is closed today. (Yay!)

 

This morning, I took two of the pugs for a five mile walk and made this awesome Thai inspired beef and noodle salad for lunch. I always crave lots of vegetables and cold/crisp foods for lunch when the weather turns warm, so this was perfect. I've seen lots of similar recipes for salads like this, so I combined a lot of what I've seen to create my own version.

 

Recipe

 

Step One: Marinate about a pound of sirloin steak in a mix of soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, honey and oil. (A bottled Asian-style marinade would work just as well) Let the meat marinade for a full 24 hours. Grill the steak while you work on chopping the vegetables. Once it is cooked to medium (or however you like it), set it aside to cool. Once cool, slice it into thin strips.

 

Step Two: Combine vegetables in a big bowl - 4 stalks celery (sliced), 2 red bell peppers (cut into thin strips), 1 head broccoli (broken into small florets) and about 8 ounces of sugar snap peas. I suppose you can use frozen broccoli and sugar snap peas, but they won't be as crisp or colorful as the fresh ones.

 

Step Three: Cook 12 ounces of spaghetti (I used whole grain blend). In the last minute of cooking add all the vegetables to the pot. This will bring out the color, but leave the vegetables nice and crisp. Drain the pasta and vegetables and rinse with very cold water until everything is completely cooled off. Let the pasta and vegetables drain thoroughly.

 

Step Four: Make the dressing. In a blender mix 1/2 c. soy sauce, 1/2 c. rice vinegar, 1/2 t. cayenne pepper, 1 T. honey, 1/4 cup canola oil, 3 T. orange juice, 3-4 minced garlic cloves, several teaspoons of fresh grated ginger and 1 T. peanut butter. Give everything a good whirl until the oil and vinegar are emulsified. (If you like things more or less spicy, go ahead and adjust the cayenne pepper)

 

Step Five: Mix the pasta, vegetables, steak and dressing in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

 

This recipe makes a ton of salad.

Done