No Noodle Cold Asian Chicken Salad
So I'm finally back with another recipe for you thanks to not having a computer for several weeks. My computer decided it had had enough (almost 7 years) and pretty much stopped working on me which stalled me from posting anything. As you probably already know I love Asian food so love to recreate versions that are soy and grain free. This recipe was inspired by cold asian noodle salad you know the one that has a ton of rice noodles and a soy and peanut based sauce! This one is completely noodle free and instead I used spaghetti squash and I also used coconut aminos and sunflower butter for the base of the sauce.
I actually made this on accident one afternoon when I had pretty much nothing to pack for my kids lunches and I had little bits of leftovers in the fridge. I had some leftover spaghetti squash that was about 4 days old so needed to be used, I had some leftover cooked chicken, 1/2 of a red cabbage and of course carrots cause we always have carrots. I have to make food that can be eaten cold so I decided to play around and make a cold asian type salad!! I made it and it was a hit with the kids so the next day I bought more of everything and actually made it for a family I was providing a meal for. They said they all loved it so there you go I decided it should go on the blog for all of you to try!! Now you know my secret actually, most of the time I kind of improvise and if it turns out tasting good and the kids love it I make it again and try and perfect with measurements and share. That's real mom life for you! Nothing really fancy. I actually think sometimes the best things happen when unplanned.
I wanted to quickly mention that this recipe calls for a fermented Siracha by Wildbrine. If you have not had this before GO GET SOME!! I have made spicy tuna with it before, added it to home made Pho and many other dishes. So far it is the only fermented siracha I have found, but if you can find a different brand with clean ingredients then that works too. The Siracha I really feel is the secret ingredient in this recipe. It won't be too spicy, all of my kids ate it, but you can always use more or less for taste. Start with less and add on according to how spicy you would like. If you are unable to find fermented siracha I don't suggest subbing for regular siracha because the ingredients are completely different and the fermented siracha is not as spicy as regular siracha. This dish will still be tasty without the siracha but it does give it that extra flavor that just makes it that more delicious!
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
- 1 Spaghetti Squash medium sized
- 1/2 Small Red Cabbage shredded
- 1lb Skinless Boneless Chicken Thighs cooked and diced
- 1.5 Cups shredded Carrots
- 1 cup Cashews chopped into pieces ( save 1/2 cup to sprinkle on top of salad)
- 1/2 bunch Cilantro for garnish ( if you love cilantro like me you can always add some to the salad as well)
- 5 TBSP Unsweetened Sunflower Butter
- 5 TBSP Coconut Aminos
- 1 TBSP Sesame Oil
- 1 TBSP raw honey (optional and eliminate for Whole30)
- 2 tsp Fish Sauce
- 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 TBSP Wildbrine Kimchi Siracha ( optional but makes this tase SO good!!)
Directions:
- To cook spaghetti squash preheat your oven to 400 degrees and slice the squash in half. Place the squash face down and cook in oven for apprimatldy 45 minutes then let squash completely cool. If you have an instant pot cut the squash in half, and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes and release pressure immediatly.
- After the squash has completely cooled remove the seeds and scoop the noodles from the squash into a large bowl.
- Shredded your carrots and cabbage and add them to the bowl.
- Now add the cooked chicken and the cashews ( make sure to leave half of the cashews to top the salad).
- In a medium bowl add your sunflower butter long with the remaining ingredients for the sauce: coconut aminos, sesame oil, fish sauce, ground ginger, honey, and siracha. Mix well
- When sauce is mixed add the sauce to the large bowl of ingredients and toss.
- Top the salad off with the remaining cashews and cilantro leaves.
** This salad tastes better with time after all of the flavors sit so it is the perfect dish to meal prep or prepare the day before**
