vietnamese cold noodle bowl

Honolulu is hot. The area we live in is called Kaimuki and literally translates to "the ti oven". If you have been following my instagram you may have seen a post about all the power salad bowls I have been creating lately. This is because sometimes it's just too damn hot to cook!

Despite the scorching heat, we love Kaimuki. We are just blocks away from tons of great restaurants, coffee shops, yoga studios, and boutiques! One of our new favorite places to eat is a little Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon. The cold noodle bowl blew my mind. So naturally, I recreated it at home. Or at least something close to it. The bowl at Saigon had baked bbq tofu (amazing), the traditional sweet chili dressing, and peanuts on top. I used plain fried tofu and I didn't have any peanuts so I made a peanut dressing instead!

peanut dressing

• 2 Tbsp peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1" piece of ginger
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes 

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until smooth. For a sweeter sauce, add 1-2 tsp raw sugar.

As for the rest of the bowl...

• shredded cabbage and lettuce
• vermicelli noodles, cooked or soaked  according to the package
• shredded or noodled carrots
• tofu cut into strips
• cilantro or Thai basil
• mung bean sprouts 

The amounts of these ingredients all depends on your personal preference. More lettuce and cabbage makes for more of a salad but more noodles makes more of a meal. Be creative! I constructed my bowl as follows:

lettuce and cabbage on the bottom layer

then the vermicelli noodles

noodled carrots, tofu, and herbs...

bean sprouts and peanut dressing!

Perfect for a hot Hawaiian summer day. Or any day :)