Cellophane Noodle Salad

In most of the Asian noodle dishes I make, I use rice noodles.  But I was recently thinking about an old friend of mine who would make egg rolls using cellophane noodles.  They were so good!  So why not make a noodle dish using these instead of traditional rice noodles?

Stellar idea!  I loved the lightness and texture of these noodles.  I did a couple of searches for Asian salads using these noodles and found a Jamie Oliver recipe which I used as a start (see link below for his version).  He used pork and shrimp, I omitted the pork.  He used red chiles with seeds, I used chopped red peppers.  I added edamames.  He also used an entire bunch of cilantro (coriander) and mint.....I used a fraction of that.  My recipe below is simply a guideline, most of the ingredient amounts are guestimates.  Add more or less according to your tastes.

CELLOPHANE NOODLE SALAD (2-4 servings)

4 oz (100 gm) package of cellophane (glass) noodles
EVOO
Chinese five-spice powder, to taste
3 tsp minced fresh garlic
2 tsp sugar
8-12 oz raw shrimp, shelled and deveined, any size
handful roasted peanuts (skinned), coarsely chopped
green onions, thinly sliced
cilantro, chopped
fresh mint, chopped
fresh grated ginger, to taste
1/4 - 1/2 chopped red pepper
shelled edamames
1-2 limes, juiced
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Soak noodles in boiling water and drain.

Heat olive oil in pan.  Add shrimp, five-spice powder, ginger, sugar, and peanuts.  Cook until shrimp are pink.

Mix the remaining ingredients (green onions through soy sauce) to make the dressing.

Add the drained noodles to the shrimp mixture.  Toss with the dressing.  Add extra soy sauce and olive oil if necessary.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/cellophane-noodle-salad-recipe.html