Jallie's Baked Beanz

One of my favorite party recipes:

2-3 small packages cellophane noodles (aka mungbean vermicelli or green bean threads)
1 cup chicken or pork
1 cup cooked shrimp, halved if large
½ cup julienned carrots
½ cup julienned celery
1/3 cup thinly sliced onion
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Dressing:
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper or sweet red chili sauce (optional)

Poach meat in lightly salted water until done. Shred or cut into julienne strips.

Blanch cellophane noodles in boiling water for 3-4 minutes to soften. Rinse in cold water to cool and drain thoroughly.

In a small bowl, combine fish sauce, lime juice and red pepper/chili sauce (to taste) and set aside.

In a large bowl, lightly toss noodles, meat, shrimp, veggies and cilantro. Pour dressing mixture over noodles and combine thoroughly. Adjust lime juice, fish sauce and red pepper to taste. You can also add a touch of sugar if dressing seems too tart or salty.

Chill until served. Toss again right before serving and top with more cilantro leaves

This is a very flexible recipe. All ingredients can be adjusted to your taste or what you have on hand. You can make this with all shrimp or just chicken, add more or less veggies -- whatever you like!

This is definitely one of my go-to recipes. As with many of my recipes, it's easy to make, but tedious in the prep. Lots of chopping and stuff. I bought carrots that were already shredded, which helped a lot. To tell you the truth about the salad ingredients... I NEVER MEASURE. So, coming up with the quantities was very difficult. Please contact me if you need help with the ingredients or prep methods.