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You are here: Home / All Recipes / Thai Glass Noodle Salad (Yum Woon Sen)

Thai Glass Noodle Salad (Yum Woon Sen)

A salad that’s filling enough to be enjoyed as a main dish. The salty-tangy-sweet dressing is fortified with the flavors and aromas of traditional Thai ingredients that include galangal, kaffir lime and its leaves, lemongrass, cilantro, chilies and palm sugar.

Thai glass noodle salad with crumbled sausage meat and shrimps

The first time I made Thai glass noodle salad, I thought it was pretty good. There was heat from the chilies, sweetness from the sugar, tang from the lime juice and saltiness from the fish sauce. I made it based on a recipe from a cookbook written by an American. Little did I realize how watered down the flavors were to appeal to the white man’s palate.

It took a trip to Chiang Mai to realize how bland — how utterly lacking — my old glass noodle salad was. It’s not that I didn’t get the balance of flavors wrong the first time. The problem was the lack of depth.

Thai glass noodle salad in Chiang Mai
Thai glass noodle salad in Chiang Mai

In Thailand, glass noodle salad is a really hot dish. And I don’t mean it’s served at a high temperature. No, it’s served at room temperature as most salads are. By “hot”, I mean spicy hot. I could manage only a few mouthfuls but that was enough to get a whiff of what seemed to be so many spices and herbs in the dressing.

In time, I learned to make better glass noodle salad. Good enough to decide to update the old recipe.

Thai Glass Noodle Salad (Yum Woon Sen)

Recipe by Connie Veneracion
Cilantro figures prominently in this recipe. The roots go into the spice base of the dressing; the stems and leaves are used as salad greens.
Make sure you use Thai basil and not sweet basil.
Sausage meat, browned in its own fat, is used here in lieu of the usual plain ground pork. The shrimps are added to the meat to allow them to soak up the flavors of the rendered fat.
Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Total Time 30 mins
Course Main Course
Cuisine Thai
Servings 4 people
Thai glass noodle salad garnished with sliced chilies and peanuts
Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 120 grams glass noodles

Dressing

  • 1 large stalk lemongrass (or two small stalks) white part only with the fibrous outer layers peeled off and discarded
  • 2 Thai chilies (we used one red and one green)
  • 2 half-inch pieces kaffir lime zest
  • 1 pair kaffir lime leaves ribs removed and discarded
  • 3 slices galangal if using dried, pre-soak in hot water until softened
  • 2 bunches cilantro roots
  • 2 tablespoons palm sugar
  • ¼ cup lime juice (kaffir limes were used here)
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce

Salad

  • 150 grams sausages (see notes after the recipe)
  • 200 grams shelled and deveined shrimps
  • 2 shallots peeled and thinly sliced
  • 2 tomatoes halved and cut into thin wedges
  • 1 generous handful Thai basil
  • 1 handful cilantro stems and leaves, torn into smaller pieces

Garnish

  • ¼ cup salted peanuts roughly chopped

Instructions
 

  • Place the glass noodles in a bowl and pour in hot water to cover the noodles completely. Leave to soak for about 20 minutes.
    Pouring hot water over glass noodles in bowl

Make the dressing

  • While the noodles soak, place the lemongrass, chilies, kaffir lime zest and leaves, galangal, cilantro roots and palm sugar in a mortar.
    Grinding lemongrass, chilies, kaffir lime zest and leaves, and cilantro roots with palm sugar
  • Use a pestle to grind them as finely as you can.
  • Pour in the lime juice and fish sauce, and mix thoroughly.
    Adding kaffir lime juice to ground spices and herbs in mortar
  • Leave the dressing to steep.

Cook the sausage meat and shrimps

  • Discard the casings of the sausages and crumble the meat into a frying pan.
  • Cook the sausage meat until lightly browned.
    Browning sausage meat and shrimps in wok
  • Add the shrimps and cook, tossing often, until both sausage meat and shrimps are cooked through.

Cook the glass noodles

  • In a pot boil about four cups of water.
  • Drain the noodles and dump into the boiling water. Cook for two minutes.
    Boiling glass noodles
  • Drain the noodles and dump into a mixing bowl.

Toss the salad

  • Strain the dressing.
    Straining Thai salad dressing
  • Add the sausage meat and shrimps to the noodles.
    Glass noodles, browned sausage meat, shrimps and Thai salad dressing
  • Pour in half of the dressing and toss thoroughly.
  • Add the sliced shallots and tomatoes.
    Adding shallots and tomatoes to noodles in bowl
  • Pour in the rest of the dressing and toss.
  • Add the Thai basil and cilantro, and toss again.
    Adding Thai basil and cilantro to noodles, meat and shrimps in pink mixing bowl
  • Transfer the salad into a serving bowl.
  • Sprinkle with more chili slices, if you want added heat.
    Gladd noodles, Thai bail. tomatoes, shrimps, sausage meat and chilies in bowl
  • Ladle into bowls and sprinkle in salted peanuts before serving.
    Thai glass noodle salad garnished with chopped salted peanuts

Notes

If you can get Thai sausages, the better. Otherwise, use the best spicy and garlicky sausage meat that you can find.
Updated from a recipe published in May 21, 2019
Keyword Noodles, Salad, Spicy
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Published: October 30, 2021 • Last modified: January 1, 2022 ♥ All Recipes, Noodles, One Bowl Meals, Salads, Southeast Asian Food, Thai
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