Sweet Chilli Noodle Salad with Crunchy Asian Greens

While most have fond memories of picnics on a grassy lawn  under a pretty tree with food spread over a quilted blanket as the ants crawled  around, my memories are quite different.  You see, I grew up in New York City; carrying a large blanket, a picnic basket loaded with food and drinks with four little girls in tow was quite challenging. Yet that didn't stop my parents from throwing the best and most memorable picnics which happened to be on the rooftop of our building. My favorite memory is after dining on a perfectly cooked steak, baked potatoes and salad, we laid on the blanket and watched the clouds float by and stayed until the stars appeared.

My picnics are different now. Because I live in Mt. Kisco, the setting is more bucolic than the urban rooftop but the food has evolved into a more sophisticated palate. Sweet Chilli with Crunchy Asian Greens is an easy to prepare dish and will enhance your next picnic whether it is on a grassy lawn under a pretty tree or on a rooftop in NYC.

                                                    Sweet Chilli Noodle Salad
                                                  with Crunchy Asian Greens 
                                                                adapted from
                                                      a perfect day for a picnic
                                                                 Tori Finch

Ingredients
3 nests of medium egg noodles
2 whole bok choi, leaves separated
1 bunch of asparagus
50 g/2 oz. mangetout/snow peas
6 spring onions/scallions, sliced
freshly squeezed juiced and grated
   zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoon palm sugar or brown sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
6 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
1 bunch of fresh coriander/cilantro
1 red chilli

Directions

Fill a saucepan three quarters full with water and bring to the boil. Add your noodles and after 2 minutes put a lidded steamer on top of the bok choi, asparagus, and mangetout/snow peas in. (If you do not have a steamer, you can cook these in a separate pan of boiling water.) Cook for a further 2 minutes  (so the noodles get 4 minutes, and then the greens get 2 minutes in total), then drain them together and blanch them all in cold running water. Drain again, then put both vegetables and noodles into a large mixing bowl along with the spring onions/scallions.

Combine the lime juice and zest, sugar, fish sauce and sweet chilli sauce in a small bowl to make a dressing, then fold through noodles. Garnish with fresh coriander/cilantro and sliced chilli, if using.

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