Adapted from Whole Foods Market. Thai shrimp and carrot salad. Downloaded from the web on May 15, 2011.

My Comment: Just my opinion, but I think this recipe needs some serious tweaking.  Realizing that the lack of oil was possibly purposeful, I still need to say that the dressing needs something – sesame oil maybe? Not enough hot pepper flakes and honestly, almost every Southeast Asian noodle/salad dish I’ve ever eaten has some kind of sweetening to offset the lime and vinegar.  

Lesson learned: even on a first pass through a recipe, go ahead and follow your instincts.

Ingredients:

8 oz. uncooked brown rice noodles
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 pound cooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp – tails removed
3 cups carrots
1/2 cup dry-roasted unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup sliced shallots
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint

Method

1. Cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse until cool, then drain and place in a large bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, combine lime juice, vinegar and crushed red pepper to make a dressing.

3. Toss noodles with 2 TBSP of the dressing. Toss remaining dressing with shrimp, carrots, peanuts, shallots, and mint.

4. Serve shrimp mixture over the rice noodles.

Serves 6. Nutrition: 290 calories, 8 g fat, 61 g carbohydrates, 8 g fiber, 24 g protein