Thai Rice Vermicelli Salad, or Yum Woon Sen, as it is originally called is a tangy, spicy, salty salad with vermicelli noodles, coriander and in my case: with Frankfurter sausages. Usually this salad is made with mince and prawns, but as a kid, I never really liked the texture of prawns, so my mom replaced the prawns by frankfurter sausages for me and I am absolutely addicted to it ever since!
Thai rice vermicelli salad is an explosion of flavours and, as a bonus, super easy to make and to prepare up front! Whenever we go on fishing or hiking adventures, this is the kind of lunch I like to take with me. Feel free to swap Frankfurter sausages for the prawns. The basic ingredients remain the same. If you do use Frankfurter sausages like me, for this Thai Vermicelli Salad, make sure you don’t grab the ones out of the tin, but the ones out of the deli, that aren’t as squishy and soft. (If that makes any sense😅) The Frankfurter sausages in the fresh deli section are red and don’t taste like Frankfurters at all. But I found the right Frankfurter sausages in the ‘packaged’ deli section of the supermarket, so I’m very excited that I get to eat this dish more often!
Ingredients Thai Vermicelli Salad (Yum Woon Sen)
We will need:
- 100 gr rice vermicelli
- 300 gr Frankfurter sausages
- 1 red onion, in slices
- small bunch freshly chopped coriander or celery leaves
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 ½ tbsp fish sauce
- 1 ½ tbsp maggi seasoning
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 birdseye chillies
Coriander or celery leaves?
For the people that don’t like coriander; (some people reckon it tastes like soap😂) swap the coriander for celery leaves!
Although coriander is more the Thai go-to ingredient, I personally prefer this dish with celery leaves. Whenever I don’t have fresh celery leaves however, like today, I will use coriander.
Instructions Thai Rice Vermicelli Salad
After you gather all your ingredients you will want to start wih soaking the rice vermicelli for about 15 minutes in a bowl of lukewarm water. This will make it easier to cook later.
I use the mortar and pestle to grind my garlic and chillies, like I’ve been thought by my mom, but you can also use a herb grinder or chop it finely with a knife. I threw 3 birdseye chillies in there, because mine come out of my garden and are very small. The birds eye chillies in the store are on steroids (often also less spicy), so I wrote 2 of them down in my recipe. Also, if you can’t find any birds eye chillies, you can use any spicy chillies you can find.
Chop up all your other ingredients if you haven’t already. The sausages are cut on an angle. In general, anything in dishes that are pointy, look prettier and I won’t deny that I eat a little bit with my eyes too.
In a pan, heat up some oil of your liking. (Personally, I prefer coconut oil. It suits the Asian kitchen and is incredibly healthy as well. First, we throw in the garlic/chillie paste until it browns a bit. I recommend not to use too much heat, or it might splash everywhere. Than add the sausages, turn up the heat and let them fry a little for about a minute or two.
Strain the rice vermicelli and cut it up with a pair of scissors to make the noodles smaller. You don’t have to be very precise, it makes it easier to stir the rest of the ingredrients through and easier to eat. Add them to your sausages and garlic/chillie paste with the fish sauce, maggi seasoning and lemon juice. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until the rice vermicelli is nice and soft, like al dente pasta and turn off the heat to let verything cool down for a bit.
In this next step, we put in the red onion and coriander. The heat has been turned off, because Thai rice vermicelli salad / Yum Woon Sen is a dish served cold and we don’t want our red onion and coriander to cook. Stir everything together, put in the fridge until it’s nice and cold and it’s ready to serve!
Garnish with some fresh coriander and chillies and you’re ready to eat!
Enjoy!
Thai Rice Vermicelli Salad (Yum Woon Sen)
Equipment
- 1 Mortar and pestle optional
- 1 pan
- 1 strainer
Ingredients
- 100 gr rice vermicelli
- 300 gr frankfurters
- 1 red onion in slices
- small bunch of coriander (can also be replaced by celery leaves)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 ½ tbsp fish sauce
- 1 ½ tbsp Maggi seasoning
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 birdseye chillies (more or less to taste)
Instructions
- Soak the rice vermicelli in lukewarm water for about 15 minutes
- Mash the garlic and chillies in mortar and pestle, or chop finely
- Chop up the coriander roughly
- Slice the red onion and Frankfurters
- Heat up a pan with (coconut) oil and add the garlic/chilly paste
- Fry until it gets a gold/brown color, add the sausages and stir for +/- 2 minutes
- Strain the rice vermicelli and use scissors to cut it in smaller pieces
- Add the rice vermicelli to the pan and stir for +/- 3 minutes or until soft (like al dente pasta) and turn off the heat
- After it cooled down for about 15 minutes, add in the red onion and coriander and put in the fridge for an hour
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