Cold Thai Noodle Salad made with rice noodles and fresh veggies is the best cold pasta salad you’ll serve this summer and it’s perfect for your back to school lunches!
Cold Thai Noodle Salad is one of those recipes I hesitated trying as a private chef. For years and years I’ve cooked for families with dietary restrictions. Whether it is a caloric restriction, gluten, allergy or otherwise I started having an adverse reaction to cooking diet specific foods in my personal life There are only so many times you can make vegan pulled pork before banishing pulled veggie meats from your own kitchen! I’m looking at you Shosh!
Because of that aversion, I used to make this noodle salad for us with linguine noodles. Let me just tell you, it is 100 times better with the rice noodles.
Want to swap out some ingredients in this Cold Thai Noodle Salad?
- Add some green onions or scallions.
- If you’re not a fan of cilantro, swap it for parsley or basil to suit your tastes.
- If you don’t want to use sugar, a small amount of honey would be a wonderful swap as well.
- Sesame oil adds quite a lot of flavor, but if you don’t like the taste of it, leave it out altogether.
- If you like peanut noodles, peanut butter would be an easy addition to this salad.
Looking for more Asian noodles?
- Easy Thai Green Curry Noodles
- Healthy Thai Peanut Chicken Zucchini Noodles
- 5 Ingredient Asian Peanut Noodles
- P.F. Chang’s Garlic Noodles (Copycat)
- 5 Minute Crunchy Asian Lime-Peanut Slaw
This Thai Noodle Salad is the perfect summer salad, perfect for your lunch box and even kids love it. It’s full of vegetables that bring a brightness and colorful presentation to the salad, but they’re also deliciously crunchy and healthy. Yes, I know the person who brought you bacon cheeseburger meatloaf last week just said healthy. It’s all about balance. So make this dish and serve it along side some Crispy Mongolian Beef… balance!
Looking for more Thai recipes?
- Thai Shrimp Crunch Salad
- Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken
- CPK Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta
- Sheet Pan Peanut Chicken and Vegetables
- One Pot Basil Chicken Coconut Curry
Tools Used in the making of this Cold Thai Noodle Salad:
Rice Noodles: These rice noodles are amazing and make this dish what it is. Worth the extra effort to buy these online or in your local Asian grocery store. Plus, hey if you use tamari sauce in place of soy sauce, this dish is gluten free!
Rice Vinegar: Readily available in almost all grocers these days, this is a great vinegar to keep on hand. It does have a hint of sweetness to it, so don’t replace with any other vinegar except perhaps a red wine vinegar if you absolutely need to.
Soy Sauce: Nothing much to say here except Kikkoman has the best flavor overall and I always recommend reduced sodium.
Sesame Oil: The flavor of sesame oil in this dish is unmistakeable and not really able to be substituted. Some Asian grocery stores will try and sell less expensive options that aren’t actually sesame oil, so just be sure the one you’re buying is authentic sesame oil.
Ingredients
- 14 ounces dried rice noodles
- 1 red bell pepper sliced
- 1 yellow bell pepper sliced
- 1 red onion sliced
- 1 carrot julienned
- 1/2 cucumber peeled and sliced into crescents with seeds scooped out
- 4 ounces bamboo shoots julienned
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- white and black sesame seeds for garnish
DRESSING:
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 lime juiced
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
Instructions
- Cook the rice noodles according to the directions on the package and drain.
- Let cool for a few minutes.
- Add the rest of the salad ingredients to the bowl.
- In a small bowl add the dressing ingredients and whisk.
- Add the dressing to the bowl of pasta and vegetables and toss.
- Garnish with white and black sesame seeds.
Nutrition
I’ve made this multiple times now and decided I needed to leave a rating – AMAZING!
Really appreciate you taking the time to leave a rating! Thank you!
I’m not super crazy about rice noodles but love bean threads or cellophane noodles. are they an acceptable swap?
I haven’t tried them so I couldn’t say, but I would think it couldn’t be bad. I wouldn’t hesitate to try them.
This is amazing. Made it this morning. Mind blown. It was soooo easy! I did cut the noodles, since it’s a picnic. I didn’t have sesame seeds or bamboo shoots. Used a lemon, no lime. My daughter will not believe I made this because it’s sooo not Mom. Fabulous
I tried this and the noodles went all chalky and gross in the fridge overnight.
It was awful! I used the thinner stir fry rice noodles. Are there different types cause I think I used the wrong one!
Oh no! There are different types and for this recipe I used these http://amzn.to/2t6Dvg7
Since we did the same thing too, I suggest you clarify in your recipe.
Very good! I’d wanted to do this for a while but when a group get together needed sides the next day I decided to try it. Appreciate that all ingredients were on hand or easy to get!
Prep notes– was able to get the veggies chopped & the dressing mixed together in a bottle the night before. Before the meal, prepared noodles & mixed everything together. After 1st taste test I only added a sprinkle of sugar. Recipe worked well & had very good flavor!
So glad you enjoyed it, Wendy!
This salad looks like something my whole family will love.
Thanks Sandi!
I love a cold noodle salad and this one is packed with flavor!
Definitely Ashley!
I haven’t made a cold noodle salad in SO LONG because of an aversion from eating too many of ’em as a kid. Clearly, I need to hop back on board because this looks and sounds fantastic, and I’m lovin’ all the veggies and swaps you have listed!
Thanks Erin!
This is a new salad for me. I can’t wait to add it into my salad rotation!
Yay! Thanks Dorothy!
Mmm, I love Thai flavors… so this will be a hit here in our house!
This looks like an awesome summer lunch or dinner!
I am all about this Cold Thai Noodle Salad – holy yum! The colors and flavors are out of this world!
Thanks Jenn!
I’ve been craving cold noodles! Definitely trying soon! Cheers!
So glad I could help with your craving 🙂 Enjoy!!