I am having the hardest time thinking of the proper name for this dish! It is inspired by those spring roll noodle bowls often found at Vietnamese restaurants. You know those salad bowls they serve full of rice noodles, with sprouts, fresh cilantro & herbs, a deep friend spring roll on top and a side of a sweet & pungent vinegar based dressing to pour over all of it?! Well, this salad is so much better than those rice noodle bowls that I used to love! It’s so so good, like the kind of dish where every bite dances on your tongue.

The sauce in in this recipe is also very versatile and can be used as a dipping sauce for raw veggie wraps and other yummy foods.

Ginger/Garlic/Lime Dressing:

• 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• 1 large chunk ginger (2 TBS)
• a few cloves garlic (2 TBS)
• 2-3 TBS honey (or other sweetener)
• a few pinches crushed red pepper flakes, adjust to personal heat preference

Gently melt coconut oil.

You can easily just mix this together in a bowl, just crush and finely chop the garlic & ginger so in blends in well! Or you can blend in a food processor, but often time when it is cool out the coconut oil will start sticking to the sides of the food processor, and if just making a small batch I find it easiest to just finely chop/crush the garlic & ginger!

The trick to this sauce is making sure it is warm enough to stay at a liquid consistency, since the coconut oil will firm up when mixed with colder ingredients.

“Noodle” Salad Ingredients:

• 3-4 zucchini, spiraled into noodles
• 2 carrots, spiraled or thinly sliced
• 1/2 head of purple cabbage, thinly shredded
• handful fresh cilantro, chopped
• handful fresh mint, chopped
• a few green onions, chopped
• I think fresh basil would also be a nice addition
• 1 cup chopped raw nuts (I used sprouted almonds, but cashews would work great too)
• 3 TBS sesame seeds
• 1 cucumber sliced for garnish

Mix together zucchini noodles with ginger/garlic/lime dressing, and really massage the dressing into the noodles. Sprinkle your plate with shredded cabbage, plop on a handful of wilted zucchini noodles, top with sliced/spiraled carrots, sprinkle on chopped nuts, sprinkle with fresh herbs, garnish with sesame seeds & cucumber slices.

Serves 4 as a dinner salad, or 2 for a full meal salad. I served this as an appetizer at a dinner party last night and it was a huge hit! Everyone loved the way it danced on their tongue!