Recipe: Cold Thai Noodle Salad

This is a great vegan dish because it doesn’t require any substiutions. It isn’t a converted non-vegan dish based on a classic like pancakes, for example, that can easily turn out badly or ends up not tasting as good as the original or tasting nothing like the original.

Estimated Time Needed: 15-20 minutes
Good for Lazy Folks?: Maybe

Ingredients:
- 1 pack of pad thai-style rice noodles (I got mine from Trader Joe's)
- 6-8 scallions (green onions), chopped
- 1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped
- 3 small/medium tomatoes, sliced
- Several sprigs of cilantro, chopped
- Some good vegan peanut thai salad dressing (the one I used is called "Light Asian Toasted Sesame" and is made by Kraft Foods)
- Optional protein boost: fried tofu

Preparation/Cooking:
1. Chop the veggies and fry the tofu (if applicable)
2. Boil a pot of water and add the noodles. Cook for 10 minutes or until tender.
3. Drain the excess water from the noodles in a strainer then run them under cold water until chilled.
4. Set the rice noodles on a paper towel or a clean dish towel to dry.
5. Toss all the veggies, (except the chopped scallions), and the tofu (if applicable) with the dressing.
6. Serve the chilled and dried rice noodles on top of the salad.
7. Top the noodles with chopped scallions.