Turkey Thai Noodle Salad

I was a little disappointed with the processed turkey roll we ended up with on Christmas Day. My fault, because I didn't check while buying it, but I was disappointed none the less. In order to get the memory of the processed meat out of my head we bought a turkey breast roll to roast. While still processed, at least this meat looks like it came from a turkey. It was very enjoyable, but now we have lots of leftovers.

I love noodle salads and I was trolling the internet looking for more recipes when I came across this intriguing Turkey Thai Noodle Salad recipe on Taste.com.au.

Thanks to a recent dinner of beef machaca and pico de gallo salsa, I had all of the ingredients except for vermicelli noodles on hand. I'm not a huge fan of vermicelli noodles anyway, so I happily substituted some udon. I was a little apprehensive about the dressing of sweet chilli sauce and fish sauce, but it turns out that it is a winning combination and it matches the texture of the udon noodles perfectly. It's a very soft-textured salad, the only crunch comes from the nuts. The noodles, the turkey, the herbs are all very gentle in texture but it really works.

I never would have thought to put turkey in a Thai inspired salad, but this was a perfect way to use up some leftovers.

Turkey Thai Noodle Salad
adapted from this recipe posted on Taste.com.au

100g udon noodles
3/4 cups cooked turkey, shredded
100g red cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 small red onion diced
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
1/4 cup of whole coriander leaves
2 tablespoons of shredded mint
2 tablespoons chopped roasted almonds

Cook the udon noodles according to packet directions.

Meanwhile, place the turkey, tomatoes and onion in a bowl and set aside.

To make the dressing, place the fish sauce and sweet chilli sauce in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Combine the noodles, turkey mixture, coriander and mint.

Drizzle with the dressing and toss to coat. Divide noodle salad between serving bowls and sprinkle with cashews. Serve with lime wedges.

Thanks to a huge backlog of posts, the posting of this recipe has been a little delayed. It was originally made in January 2009.