Green Ginger Rice Noodles

5 from 5 votes

Recipe video above. Rice noodles tossed in a ginger-forward, "Asian-pesto" sauce that’s based on Hainanese Chicken’s Ginger Shallot Sauce. Crazy good, fast, and it even turns the noodles green which I’m weirdly obsessed with.

I threw in some shredded chicken for protein to make it a meal. Cucumber would be so great to make this a refreshing side dish (deseeded, batons or thin half-moons).

Serve it warm or cold. It’s a total win for hot days, lunch boxes, or whenever you’re doing an Asian-ish spread. I see myself making this A LOT this summer!

Prep Time15

Sauce resting10

Course: Main

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: cold noodles, rice noodle recipe

Servings:

Calories: 580cal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

350g / 3 cups shredded cooked chicken (I use my foolproof poached chicken)
250g / 8oz rice noodles , thin flat ones, prepared per packet, rinsed under cold tap water - I use Changs Pad Thai style (Note 1)

Ginger shallot sauce (Note 3)

4 cups (lightly packed) green onion , cut into ~1.25cm / 1/2" pieces (5 - 6 BIG stems!)
1/4 cup roughly chopped ginger , ~ 4mm / 1/6" pieces
2 garlic cloves , roughly chopped
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp light soy sauce , or all-purpose soy sauce (not dark soy sauce - Note 2)
1 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
1/4 tsp white pepper , or black
1/3 cup grapeseed oil , or other neutral flavoured oil (vegetable, canola etc)

For serving:

Sriracha - use as much as you dare!
1/4 cup crispy shallots (store bought)

Instructions

ABBREVIATED RECIPE:

Blitz (pulsing) 1/4 of the green onion with ginger, garlic, vinegar and water until ginger is pureed. Then blitz in remaining green onion and soy until pesto-like. Stir in oil and salt, set aside 10 minutes. Toss with noodles and chicken, serve with crispy shallots and sriracha!

FULL RECIPE:

Ginger shallot sauce first:

Blitz - Put 1/4 of the green onions in a tall jug (or deep bowl), top with the ginger, garlic, vinegar and water. Blitz with a stick blender until the ginger and garlic is pureed (~ 15 seconds). Add the remaining green onions and soy sauce. Blitz until all the green onion is finely chopped but don't let it become green smoothie, it should be a pesto-like consistency. Asian pesto! :) (Note 4 if you don't have a stick blender)
Stir and set aside - Stir in the oil, salt and pepper. Then set aside for 10 minutes to let the flavours meld while you rehydrate the noodles.

Toss and eat!

Toss the noodles with the Green Ginger Sauce first. Toss well so it coats the noodles nicely. Then add the chicken, toss well again. (If you add chicken first, too much sauce clings to it). Loosen with a touch of water if needed.
Warm or cold serving - If serving the noodles cold, set aside for 15 minutes+ to let the noodles cool. The flavours will continue to develop. If serving warm, serve straight away.
Serve - Divide between bowls, drizzled with sriracha, sprinkle with crispy shallots, eat!

Notes

Serves 4 as a meal, 8 to 10 as a side.

1. Noodles - I like dried rice noodle sticks for this because the neutral flavour lets the Green Ginger Sauce take centre stage and there's a prominent surface area to show off the green colour.

But you can really use any noodles for this. Same weight for dried noodles (or even pasta - really!), or 400g/14oz for fresh noodles from the fridge.

2. Soy sauce - Don't use dark soy sauce, it's far too intense and will ruin your dressing! Use light soy, any all-purpose soy or tamari.

3. Green onion = generally understood universal name for the long green stems with no white bulb at the base known by various names around the world:

Shallots - another name in Australia (in the US, shallots = the mini onions which we call eschalots in Australia!)
Scallions - US name
Spring onions - Common name in the UK

Confused? Don't blame you! See the Ingredients photo in post, or the video. You'll need 4 to 5 large stems with 3 or so stems on each. Yes, A LOT!

4. No stick blender? Sharpen your knives! Finely chop the green onion (you'll need 2 cups tightly packed once finely chopped), use a microplane for the garlic and ginger. This is the traditional way Ginger Shallot Sauce is made anyway!

Leftovers keeps 3 days in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before consuming (fridge cold = hard noodles), or lightly warm in the microwave.

Nutrition per serving, assuming 4 servings.

Nutrition