Name: Vietnamese Vermicelli Salad, Two Ways
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Ingredients: 1 pound organic ground pork or turkey, diced chicken thighs or shredded and cooked chicken breast can also be used; 1 tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce (sold at Trader Joe's); 6 cloves garlic, minced, or 2 tbsp pre-minced garlic; 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper; 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt; 1 tablespoon monkfruit or erythritol sweetener, optional; 28-32 ounces shirataki noodles (most bags are either 7 or 8 ounces each), spaghetti or angel hair, cooked, dried, and cut into shorter lengths; 2 medium carrots, cut into long slivers; 1 tablespoon per each salad fried garlic flakes, used as a crunchy topping, optional--Many of these are often fried in cheap vegetable oils. Organic Garlic Gold Toasted Garlic Nuggets is what I use as a substitute (using a subscription to online grocery source Thrive Market), unless you can spend extra time making your own.; 1/8 cup for each salad unsalted roasted organic peanuts for topping, gives the dish a more authentic taste, optional (since peanuts are not a nut but a legume that adds carbs); 2 bags Trader Joe's Organic Romaine Lettuce or equivalent romaine washed and cut; 1 cucumber, sliced into matchsticks; 2 2.75 ounce packages of organic mint, washed and separated from the stems; 1-1/2 cup bean sprouts, optional; 3/4 cup celery, cut into diagonal slivers, optional*; 1/2 head green cabbage, sliced, or 9 oz bag of Trader Joe's organic shredded green & red cabbage with orange carrots*; 2 2.75 ounce packages of organic cilantro (from Trader Joe's or Safeway/Vons) or half bunch from elsewhere, chopped*; 2-3 stalks green onions, cut into thin slices*

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Two Salad Combinations
Ready to enjoy one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes? This dish, shown below as “Salad 1–Dinner Salads, Using Mint,” is popular at Vietnamese restaurants. One can usually find it under the menu subtitle: “Vermicelli”. It is often paired with various types of meat, such as deep-fried egg rolls called “chả giò” (one of my favorites as a kid and before starting keto), as well as barbecued shrimp, pork, beef or chicken, and, of course, fish sauce. It is also served with romaine or green-leaf lettuce and fresh mint leaves.

Note: The Asian vermicelli noodle, made rice rather than other grain four, can be compared to the Italian angel hair pasta, which is thinner than spaghetti noodles. So, when you’re buying your Shirataki noodles at the store you have a better idea of which ones to get. Although, there’s nothing wrong with using the spaghetti ones, either, should you not find angel hair available.

The other type of vermicelli salad noted as “Salad II–Party Platter, Using Cilantro,” as I know it, is served as a party platter dish with celery, cilantro and cabbage. Unlike many of the other Vietnamese salads where you often add the fish sauce to your bowl right before eating it, in this case you can add the fish sauce to the whole platter, and it won’t make your salad get soggy. This dish is similar to the other salad I’ve included on another post called Vietnamese Chicken Cabbage Salad, but without noodles and some of the salad ingredients shown below.

I keep the meat simple and just sauté ground meat or small cuts of meat, such as chicken, when I make either of these at home. You are free to barbecue any of these meats, including wild-caught shrimp, if you’d like to!

Save Time with Pre-Planning Prep
As you take a look at the long list of ingredients, don’t let the number of items scare you. I find it easier to prep some of the salad items one or two days in advance, such as cutting or shredding the carrots, cucumber, onions, etc., since many of these are items we use in daily salads, anyway. Even cooking the meat in advance will save you 20 minutes. Once all the salad ingredients have been cut, the meat cooked, and the fish sauce is made, I think you’ll agree the effort in putting this all together was well worth while.

Vietnamese Vermicelli Salad, Two Ways

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Recipe by J. Irish, Ketolicious Eats Course: Salads, DinnerCuisine: VietnameseDifficulty: Easy

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Try these tasty Vietnamese salads in two different combinations, both are great for summer days, packing into lunches, and getting in some fresh herbs.

Ingredients

Sautéed Meat Ingredients for Both Salads
1 pound 1 organic ground pork or turkey, diced chicken thighs or shredded and cooked chicken breast can also be used
1 tablespoon 1 Red Boat fish sauce (sold at Trader Joe’s)
6 cloves 6 garlic, minced, or 2 tbsp pre-minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon 1/2 red pepper flakes or 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon 1/2 ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon 1/2 Himalayan pink salt
1 tablespoon 1 monkfruit or erythritol sweetener, optional
Salad Ingredients for Both Salad I–Dinner Salads, Using Mint & Salad II–Party Platter, Using Cilantro
28-32 ounces 28-32 shirataki noodles (most bags are either 7 or 8 ounces each), spaghetti or angel hair, cooked, dried, and cut into shorter lengths
2 2  medium carrots, cut into long slivers
1 tablespoon per each salad 1 fried garlic flakes, used as a crunchy topping, optional–Many of these are often fried in cheap vegetable oils. Organic Garlic Gold Toasted Garlic Nuggets is what I use as a substitute (using a subscription to online grocery source Thrive Market), unless you can spend extra time making your own.
1/8 cup for each salad 1/8 unsalted roasted organic peanuts for topping, gives the dish a more authentic taste, optional (since peanuts are not a nut but a legume that adds carbs)
Salad I–Dinner Salads, Using Mint: Additional Ingredients
2 2 bags Trader Joe’s Organic Romaine Lettuce or equivalent romaine washed and cut
1 1 cucumber, sliced into matchsticks
2 2.75 ounce 2 packages of organic mint, washed and separated from the stems
1-1/2 cup 1-1/2 bean sprouts, optional
Salad II–Party Platter, Using Cilantro: Additional Ingredients
3/4 cup 3/4 celery, cut into diagonal slivers, optional*
1/2 head 1/2 green cabbage, sliced, or 9 oz bag of Trader Joe’s organic shredded green & red cabbage with orange carrots*
2 2.75 ounce 2 packages of organic cilantro (from Trader Joe’s or Safeway/Vons) or half bunch from elsewhere, chopped*
2-3 stalks 2-3 green onions, cut into thin slices*
Vietnamese Fish Sauce or “Dipping Sauce” Recipe

Directions

In a medium pot cook the Shirataki noodles as instructed on the packaging. After they are strained and rinsed, add them back to the empty pot, and cook off the extra water using medium heat. Stir them every few minutes to get as much water out. Once they are pretty much dry, you can remove them from the heat and set aside.
Using a medium-sized skillet, begin sautéing the meat on medium heat, adding in the remainder of the sauté ingredients as you go. Once the meat is cooked, you can turn off the heat, and set it aside.
Salad 1–Tasty Dinner Salads
Now begin making your salad. Add about 3/4 cup of the cut shirataki noodles to the bottom of your bowl.
Now add about 1-1/2 cup of cut romaine or green leaf lettuce.
Then add a layer of shredded carrots, cucumbers, onions and about 1/4 of the mint leaves you washed and removed from stems.
Now top with about 1/2 cup of meat, 1/4 cup of organic peanuts (highly recommend but optional), and 5-6 tablespoons of prepared Vietnamese fish sauce.
Finally, if you can find some quality made fried garlic (optional) to top on your salad, you’re ready to dig in!
Salad II–A Great Dish for Your Next Potluck
Layer in the bottom of a casserole dish, all the cut Shirataki noodles.
Then layer in the veggies, with the meat(s) on top.
Then add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of fish sauce, and mix well. The remaining fish sauce can be left in a small bowl with a serving spoon for those who wish to add more fish sauce.
Garnish with cilantro, green onions, and peanuts (optional). Now, you’re ready to serve guests!

Notes

Leftovers are often good up to a week in the refrigerator, and the meat can be served cold without any need to reheat it when serving.
I recommend using clean, organic ingredients whenever possible. Unfortunately, many of the pre-mixed Asian sauces out there are made with preservatives, genetically modified vegetable oils, modified corn starch, soy, and added sugar so whenever possible I use the cleanest available version I can find.