Molly Wizenberg weaves recipes into her new book, “Delancey,” which chronicles the startup of her relationship with husband Brandon Pettit and Delancey, their Seattle pizza restaurant. Her readers’ appetites were primed by Wizenberg’s blog, Orangette, and her 2010 book with recipes, “A Homemade Life.”
For this dish, inspired by the takeout food the couple loves, we saved time by shopping the salad bar for the prepped vegetables and pieces of store-roasted turkey breast.
Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad
2 to 3 servings
Adapted from Wizenberg’s “Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage” (Simon and Schuster, 2014).
For the salad:
8 ounces dried rice noodles (pad Thai/linguine width)
Handful mixed fresh herbs, such as basil, cilantro and mint
6 to 8 ounces cooked meat
2 ounces shredded/matchstick-cut carrot (may substitute 1 medium carrot, scrubbed and shredded)
2 cups shredded cabbage, preferably Napa (may substitute 3 or 4 Napa cabbage leaves, very thinly sliced)
4 ounces sliced cucumber (May substitute 1/2 cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced)
1/2 cup roasted, salted peanuts, for garnish
For the dressing:
1 or 2 limes
1 medium clove garlic
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
6 to 8 tablespoons water
Pinch red pepper flakes
Lay a clean dish towel on the counter. Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the noodles and wait for 1 minute before stirring to separate them. Cook for about 3 minutes; the noodles need to be tender but not mushy. Drain, then immediately dump the noodles onto the towel, separating them from each other.