It’s time for another post for The Kids Cook Monday, and this time we made asparagus noodle salad using cellophane noodles.
Cellophane noodles are known by many names and are made from plant starches such as mung beans, yams, potatoes, or cassava. I typically have a package of the mung bean variety in the pantry, ready to whip out when we want a noodle fix. You may find them in your grocery store labeled as bean threads, glass noodles, saifun, sotanghon, harusame, wun sen, long rice, or other names depending on the country of origin. Cellophane noodles are a fun food for kids and adults because they have a unique slippery texture that makes them a treat to slurp, plus they are very versatile and work well in soups, salads, or hot dishes with meat or vegetables. They are also very easy to cook, just soak the dry noodles in boiling water for up to 10 minutes, then drain.
For this dish, we make the vinaigrette and let it stand while we cook the noodles, then let the noodles cool while we prepare the vegetables. It’s also a great make ahead dish, just prepare the vinaigrette and the noodles the day before and let them chill in the refrigerator until ready to eat the next day.
The only hard work is chopping the asparagus, which is an easy job for a 6-year-old.
Make sure to visit The Kids Cook Monday for more recipes to cook with your kids, and check out the rest of our Kids Cook Monday recipes below.
How Adults Can Help the Kids
- Demonstrate and assist with any tasks that might be new: measuring, stirring, pouring, chopping, stir-frying.
- Assign the simpler tasks to the younger kids, and save the more challenging tasks for the older kids and adults.
Safety Tips
- Make sure an adult is present at all times.
- Young children should not handle hot woks. Make sure an adult or older child or teenager does the stir-frying.
- The oil in the wok will be hot, so be careful when adding the vegetables and watch for splatters.
- 5-ounce (142 g) package cellophane noodles
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 1 pound (454 g) asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup matchstick carrots
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- SESAME GINGER VINAIGRETTE
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon hot chili sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) olive oil
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) water
- VINAIGRETTE – Whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients in the small bowl, or shake together in a cruet. Set aside.
- NOODLES – Bring a pot of water to boil, and add thee noodles. Remove from heat and soak the noodles until soft, about 10 minutes. Drain and cool to room temperature, or refrigerate until ready to eat.
- Heat the sunflower oil in the wok, and stir-fry the asparagus and carrots until crisp tender, about 5 minutes. Put the noodles in individual bowls, top with the the asparagus and carrots, and toss with the vinaigrette and chopped cilantro.
small bowl or cruet
medium heavy bottom pot with lid
wok or large skillet
More Kids Cook Monday Recipes
For the complete list of The Kids Cook Monday recipes, visit my Cooking with Kids page.
Just a quick note on teaching your kids to cut stuff; I think a 6 year old is absolutely old enough to be trusted with a knife (supervised, of course) but I noticed that the way your son is holding the knife is more likely to cause the knife to slip and roll, especially when cutting round things like asparagus.
Teach your son to hold the knife properly, which means holding it closer to the blade and even pinching the blade between his first finger and his thumb. (see the illustration at the bottom of this page: http://www.chefdepot.net/knifesharpening.htm)
The knife is less likely to roll, flip, or slip out of his grasp if he’s holding the whole “handle” and some of the blade, rather than holding it by the end of the tang.
Hi Kara. Yes, you are correct that Monkey Boy’s knife mojo was off on that day. He wasn’t exactly in a cooperative mood, so even though we’ve worked very hard to teach our children proper knife skills, at that moment I was just happy that he let me take a picture of him. 🙂
Love this!
Hi Andrea,
I just want to commend you for the great job you do teaching your kids to cook. I look forward to reading your “Kids Cook Monday” posts and am always impressed at how you’ve managed to make cooking a family affair, right down to your littlest family members! The best part is that your kids always seem to really be enjoying themselves. It’s a skill they’ll use their entire lives, well done.
Cheers,
Kristy
The photos are great and the recipe seems easy enough for cooking with kids. It’s simple enough for after school cooking that they can eat early or can be saved. Keep up the great postings! Thanks