Nuoc cham, a Vietnamese condiment made with fish sauce, lime juice, garlic and sugar, does double duty as a marinade and sauce in this colorful noodle salad. We use brown sugar in our version of nuoc cham to give it some light caramel notes.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 35 min |
| Prep: | 29 min |
| Cook: | 6 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 14 ounces flat rice noodles
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/3 cup fish sauce
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 to 2 teaspoons Asian chili sauce (such as Sriracha)
- 1 pound medium-large shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 medium bunch asparagus, trimmed
- 5 ounces shiitake mushrooms, trimmed
- 1 medium carrot, shredded
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook as the label directs; drain and rinse with cold water.
- Meanwhile, whisk the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic, chili sauce and 1/3 cup water in a medium bowl. Transfer 1/4 cup of the marinade to another bowl and toss with the shrimp. Toss another 1/4 cup marinade with the asparagus and mushrooms in a third bowl. Let the shrimp and vegetables marinate 10 minutes at room temperature. Toss the noodles with the remaining marinade.
- Heat a grill or grill pan to medium-high. Grill the shrimp, asparagus and mushrooms until the shrimp is just cooked through and the asparagus is slightly tender, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Halve the mushrooms and cut the asparagus into pieces.
- Divide the noodles among bowls and top with the shrimp, asparagus, mushrooms, carrot and cilantro.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 612 |
| Total Fat | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Carbohydrates | 117 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 31 g |
| Protein | 32 g |
| Cholesterol | 183 mg |
| Sodium | 2252 mg |
Reviews
Not great.
Disappointing. Bland and too sweet.
meh not to redo
Easy & fresh
Too much fish sauce (and I cut the amount called for to 2 tablespoons!). Sauce was “thin” on the palate, no umami. Was surprised no sesame oil.
This recipe was disappointing. The flavor was just off. I have read the other reviews and i agree that it is the fish sauce that overpowers the flavor. And I love thai food and use fish sauce in other recipes. The sauce was a good marinade for the shrimp but just too pungent as a sauce for the entire dish.
Would have been great with 1/2 the amount of lime juice….
Excellent!
Reading all of the negative reviews, I was quite nervous about making this dish. I had almost all of the ingredients already, except the cilantro,asparagus lime, and shrimp. Nevertheless, my investment monetarily speaking was small b/c the asparagus, lime, cilantro, and shrimp were all on sale (yay!) at my local grocery store, and so I didn’t have to shell out any significant amount of money for them.
I give this recipe a 5 star rating! It is awesome, hands down! I followed it exactly to the letter, and it came out so flavorful. My only exception was the mushrooms (the shitake mushrooms were $4 and the regular white button mushrooms were $1.75). I also grilled thin slices of chicken breasts in addition to grilling the shrimp, just b/c I have lots of thinly cut chicken breast in my freezer. Other than that, I used all the ingredients as mentioned and followed the recipe exactly. This is dish is a bonafide home run!! The grilled asparagus gives the dish the “crunch” that is needed to balance out the texture against the soft noodles and soft grilled mushrooms.
I’m not sure why so many people had issues with this dish but I do think it delivers, and delivers well. The flavor profile and texture are perfect!! I highly recommend this :).
I’m really confused. I like all the ingredients in this recipe, even fish sauce… but it just didn’t hit the spot for me. I’m sad I wasted good rice noodles and shrimp on it, actually. I think it might be the lime–there is so much of it, the acidic taste kind of sours everything up, maybe? I can’t put my finger on it, but I didn’t care for this.
This dish is awesome! Every bite had a different flavor profile, from the saltines of the fish sauce to the woody taste of the mushrooms. The only thing I did differently was to grill the shrimp, asparagus and mushrooms separately. Makes a generous amount, so it became “leftovers”. Well, these “leftovers” were awesome too. Will make this a regular in the recipe file.