You know those recipes that take roughly 30 minutes but taste like you spent HOURS cooking up a storm? Welp, this Rice Noodle Salad with Steak is exactly that and it’s freaking delicious!
Between the subtle heat from the dressing, those addictive cucumbers, the perfect marinated and cooked steak and the noodles… this is perfection. It’s a recipe for any weeknight when you need dinner on the table in a flash! I’ve been eyeing it over on Bon App for the better part of a year and finally got around to making it last month and OMG it’s everything! And it would work with any other kind of protein… chicken, fish, salmon, you name it! Just give it a quick marinade and then cook to perfection and toss it into the noodles and slurp away!
Rice Noodle Salad with Steak
Ingredients
For the Dressing
- 1 jalapeño pepper super finely diced
- 4 garlic clove roughly chopped
- Kosher salt
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice plus more as needed
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
For the Noodles + Steak
- ½ lb. skirt steak
- 6 oz. wide rice noodles
- ½ small head Napa cabbage coarsely chopped
- 2 mini seedless cucumbers thinly sliced
- ½ cup finely chopped mint plus more leaves for serving
- ½ cup finely chopped roasted salted peanuts, plus more for serving
Instructions
For the Dressing
- Add the jalapeño, garlic, salt, lime juice, soy sauce, honey, and 1 tablespoon oil to a bowl and stir to dissolve honey.
For the Noodles + Steak
- Place the steak in a medium bowl and add 3 tablespoons of the dressing to the steak. Reserve remaining dressing and set aside. Let the steak marinate, turning every few minutes for at least 20 minutes, up to 1 hour.
- While the steak is marinating, bring a pot of water to a boil. Remove from heat, add noodles, and cover. Let sit, stirring every minute to keep from sticking, until noodles are al dente, 5–8 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water. Drain well and set aside.
- Combine cabbage and cucumbers in a large bowl; season lightly with salt. Massage with your hands to release excess water. Drain off any water that pools in bottom of bowl.
- Pat steak dry and season with salt. Heat remaining oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high. Add steak and cook, turning once, until browned all over, about 5-6 minutes per side for medium. Let rest 5 minutes before cutting into semi-thin slices against the grain.
- Add cabbage mixture, noodles, steak, ½ cup mint, and ½ cup peanuts to bowl with reserved dressing. Toss to combine; taste and season with salt if needed. Top with more mint and peanuts before serving.
Photo by Matt Armendariz / Food Styling by Adam Pearson / Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit
I love those delicious 30 minute meals!! This looks to be a real keeper!
This looks amazing! Any idea how many people this would serve?
4-6!
Bravo—looks like a keeper recipe. Nice and quick too.
Do you have a preferred rice noodle? Everytime i buy rice noodles they end up either gummy or too hard.
I love your recipes but so often you don’t put in how many servings. This would be extremely helpful – especially since I am cooking for one or two only and this would give me an idea of how to change ingredient measurements
everything is always 4-6! I’ll do better about noting that
It’s one of the few noodles you want to rinse after cooking, unlike standardized pasta preparation. Looks also like a good spot for a miso marinade for the steak.
Actually going to have this in tote to a bbq get together this weekend.
Any suggestions for making it with zoodles vs. rice noodles (whole 30 happening over here)
cook the zoodles separately by sautéing for 2 minutes with some olive oil and then add into the finished dish!
Currently Scraping the bottom of the bowl! Made this for a quick dinner tonight and followed the recipe exactly! Loved the way the flavors all work together and has a nice crunchy freshness.Next time I think I’ll add some minced ginger too.
I made this and really liked it. Super easy and I will make again. The mint is a must!! I think this would be good on a bed of kale and with shrimp instead of beef too. The dressing has a perfect kick and loved the wide rice noodles. Thanks Gaby!
Ps:
I ran low on dressing, I would make 1.5x the dressing recipe next time.
Delicious! I am not so good at pan frying steak and I think I could only find a whole pound of skirt steak so after cutting it open it was not cooked enough and I had to put the slices back on the pan :/ overall still tasty!
This was delicious! Really light and fresh. We ordered a lb of steak instead of 1/2 because we’re big meat eaters and we may even up it some more next time. The marinade is delish!
Could you grill the steak if I don’t have a cast iron skillet?
absolutely
This was perfect! It was so light and refreshing but still totally filling. Will absolutely be making this again. We did the steak on the BBQ because we always mess up steak on the stovetop. I also roasted the garlic first because raw garlic gives me heart palpitations. It was still so delicious. I left out the jalapeño seeds so it had just a hint of spice. Even my 8 year old loved this!
Another amazing dish from Gaby. I made this last night. I normally don’t have napa cabbage on hand but regular cabbage worked just fine. Also didn’t have mint, so I just topped it with cilantro and green onions. So yummy!
Exceptional! I had leftover steak from dinner last night, cucumbers and mint from the garden and red cabbage in the fridge.
It is so light and filling. It will be on my rotation for a ladies lunch or a gluten free dinner with friends!
This was really good! And easy! I did it with salmon and otherwise followed the recipe. Used cilantro instead of mint and added some green onions and sesame seeds. More of a summery meal, but was still really good and fresh.