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Topped with flavorful sautéed tofu, fresh carrot and radish, fried shallots, peanuts, and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro, these Vietnamese-inspired noodle bowls are as vibrant in flavor as they are in color.
The striking blue cellophane noodles, steeped in butterfly pea flowers to achieve their rich color, transform before your eyes when mixed with the acidic sauce. Just in case you needed an excuse to play with your food.
For whatever reason, I’ve been fixated on the idea of blue noodles. (Again, this obsession with naturally colored foods will not go away).
I first tried to make some homemade udon noodles, colored blue with butterfly pea powder. The result, while delicious, didn’t necessarily look appetizing (the blue wasn’t nearly strong enough and the noodles sort of looked like mauve gummy worms).
So I scrapped the idea of homemade noodles, and experimented with dyeing noodles blue by cooking them in a butterfly pea tea, essentially butterfly pea flowers steeped in hot water. I tried a few kinds of noodles, but these mung bean noodles absorbed the color the best.
Honestly it’s sort of hard to decipher the millions of different kinds of noodles out there, but if you ask at your local Asian market for glass or cellophane noodles, you should be good to go. Bean vermicelli or bean threads are another name you might see on the packaging.
Specifically, I used Pine Brand Bean Vermicelli from Thailand, but there are lots of different brands that would work here.
We served the noodles with a simple Vietnamese-inspired sauce, made with lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and a bit of fresh garlic and chili. The sauce is very acidic, which is exactly what you need to trigger the color changing properties of the butterfly pea.
Topped with some shaved veggies, sautéed tofu, fried shallots and fresh cilantro, the bowl as a whole reminds me of Vietnamese spring rolls (and in fact, the sauce recipe is based off of a Vietnamese spring roll dipping sauce).
It’s cool and refreshing and perfect for the warmer days of spring and summer.
from Love and Olive Oil https://ift.tt/2H3U3NP
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