Monsieur Vuong Noodles

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These noodles are inspired by a fantastic restaurant in Berlin called Monsieur Vuong.  It’s the most incredible but also reasonable Vietnamese and when my friend Casty and I went we ate up almost everything on the menu.  I loved the way they mixed crunchy red cabbage and grated carrots with noodles.  Here I’ve used delicious soba noodles that are made from buckwheat flour so they are gluten free.

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 carrots, grated

1/2 red cabbage, finely sliced

300g/11oz soba noodles

2 spring onions, roughly chopped

1 bunch coriander, roughly chopped

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 small red chilli, finely chopped

100g/4oz salted peanuts, roughly chopped

For the sauce:

3 tsp tamarind paste

3 tbsp unrefined caster sugar

3 tbsp freshly grated ginger

zest and juice of 4 limes

4 tbsp groundnut oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

pinch of sea salt

First, in a bowl mix together all the ingredients for the sauce together and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl toss together carrots, red cabbage, spring onions, half the coriander, garlic and chilli. In a saucepan of boiling salted water add in the noodles to boil for about 5 minutes. Keep an eye as they are very quickly over cooked. Drain noodles keeping about half a cup of the starchy water and then add then to the mixing bowl. Pour in the dressing and use tongs to mix everything together and add a little of the cooking water to loose the noodles if needed. Serve in bowls with the last of the coriander and garnish with peanuts on top. Das ist sehr gut!