Vietnamese Spaghetti Squash Salad
The shrimp and pork are part of this big picture, but you can leave out either or both for convenience or if you're serving to a group and you're not sure about allergies or food preferences - vegetarian, shell-fish-free or pork-free, it still makes a fabulous salad that gets rave reviews whenever and wherever I serve it. It is quite time-consuming, but well worth it, and it makes a great contribution to any barbecue, picnic or potluck. It's also a great side with my Vietnamese Roast Chicken!
As with most of my recipes, you cannot go too far wrong if you decide to take or leave, reduce or increase any one ingredient, but in this case, the Vietnamese Sauce, Nuoc Cham, is essential. If you want to serve this salad as a main dish with spring rolls on the side, you'll use the same sauce for dipping your springrolls.
Ingredients
Tip:
Using a food processor to shred the carrots and celery and ground the peanuts in advance really cuts down the work involved with this recipe.
- 1 large spaghetti squash, seeded and halved
- ½ pound cooked pork roast, slivered into matchsticks
- 1 pound medium shrimp, cooked, peeled and chopped (salad shrimp are cheaper and work perfectly also; reserve a few either way for the top garnish)
- 1 ½ stalks of celery, cut in one inch long pieces and slivered/julienned
- 1 pound of bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
- 2 carrots, shredded or julienned lengthwise
- 2 green onions, cut into 1 inch strips and slivered
- 4 tablespoons of sesame seed, roasted
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro (coriander), coarsely chopped
- ¼ cup peanuts, roasted and ground
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup Nuoc Chom, ( + extra to serve at the table)
Preparing the Salad
- Place the spaghetti squash halves, open side down, in a shallow baking pan with a little bit of water. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 – 45 minutes, just until you can poke through the skin of the squash with a fork.
- Use an oven glove or towel to hold the spaghetti squash as you remove the strands from the skin by scraping lengthwise with a fork.
- Rinse the strands of squash under very cold water for several minutes, squeezing all the water out with your hands as you go. You can also use a towel to wring the water out. The spaghetti squash will form into balls when you squeeze, but will become crisp strands as it cools and you begin mixing in the other ingredients.
- Put the spaghetti squash in a bowl large enough to give lots of room for tossing and mixing.
- Add the shredded carrots, green onion, celery, slivered pork, shrimp, and just 3 quarters of the drained beans sprouts, sesame seeds and chopped coriander, reserving the last quarter for garnish just before serving.
- Use a fork, spaghetti scoop, or your hands (which are the best!) to mix and blend all the ingredients. The colors are gorgeous at this point!
- Pour some of the Nuoc Cham sauce over the salad a little at a time, mixing until it is just a little juicy. Put the salad in the fridge to chill for at least a few hours. It is even better the next day!
- Just before serving time, give it another toss, taste, and add more Nuoc Cham if it seems dry or not zesty enough.
- Sprinkle the remainder of the bean sprouts, coriander, sesame seeds and all of the coarsely ground peanuts over the top of the salad.
- Garnish last with the remaining whole shrimp and a couple whole sprigs of coriander. Offer a condiment dish of extra Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce) at the table.
