This herbal cold noodle "soup" (quotes because it's really more like a dip, sort of?) recipe draws inspiration from the sa pie noodles at one of my favourite restaurants in London. The flavour profile is mostly sweet and sour from a combination of sugar with fresh lime juice and some black vinegar. The herbal trio of garlic chives, coriander, and dill can be adjusted somewhat, but the garlic chives are a backbone component of the dish.
For reference, sapie is a Dai noodle dish from Yunnan that consists of a cold dipping broth and various accompaniments like rice noodles and cabbage. This is not a recipe for that dish, so don't @ me bruh.
Ingredients and substitutions
I don't believe in forcing flavours on anyone who is opposed, so if you're in the bin all coriander club then you can absolutely omit it. Other herbs I've tried that work well are lemon balm, lime mint, lemon and lime basils. My advice is stick with brighter herbs that typically lose aroma when cooked, but skip those which do well in stews like sage, thyme, and rosemary. And, as already alluded to, don't omit the garlic chives.
I recommend using a decent stock or dashi for the base. The stock I used was made from cabbage, soy beans, salted preserved radish, coriander, celery, ginger, and dried shiitake mushroom, but I realise most people probably aren't as gung ho about always having fresh stock around as I am (you can make fun of me; I do all the time). Use water if you must, but you may wish to up the mushroom seasoning powder if you do.
The best kind of noodles are of the mixian variety. They're pretty readily available in the refrigerated section of larger Chinese shops in London (Xing Long Men and Loon Fung supermarkets on Gerrard Street in Chinatown usually have them in stock), but if not you can use any dried extruded rice noodles such as Guilin rice sticks or Vietnamese bún noodles. Look for something round and thick and then cook them per packet instructions.
Orrrrr if you have a manual noodle press (they're cheap and fun), you can try making your own with my homemade rice vermicelli recipe.
Sweet and sour cold noodle soup with garlic chives and peanuts
Ingredients
- 175 millilitres cold stock nothing salty
- 4 teaspoons white sugar
- 4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
- 2 teaspoons black vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon mushroom seasoning powder (see notes)
- â…› teaspoon lime zest
- 20 grams finely chopped garlic chives heaped ¼ cup
- 5 grams coriander, including small stems
- 2 grams fresh dill fronds scant 1 tablespoon
- 60-75 grams dried extuded rice noodles (see notes)
- 1 ½ tablespoons roasted roughly chopped peanuts
- Toasted chilli powder (prik pon) to taste (see notes)
- Sliced fresh bird's eye chillies to taste
Instructions
- Combine the cold stock, sugar, lime juice, black vinegar, salt, mushroom seasoning powder and lime zest in a bowl with some space left for adding noodles and cabbage. Give it a stir, add the herbs, and pop the bowl back in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the rice noodles per packet instructions and strain. Dump them into some cold water to stop the cooking, strain again, and plop them on a dish alongside the shredded cabbage.
- Remove the stock from the fridge, give it another stir, add the peanuts, fresh chillies, and toasted chilli powder. Serve with the cooled noodles and cabbage.