Recipe: Healthy Vietnamese Bun Cha Salad (Gluten Free!)

Let's get one thing straight; I'm not Vietnamese. I've never lived in Vietnam or any Asian countries - and I've only ever travelled to one Asian country. 

But I do live in a multicultural country and I do love Vietnamese food. Thus, when a reader sent me an email about my Easy Vietnamese Meatballs Recipe telling me that I needed to use them to make bun cha, I knew I had to try it. 

I set about googling and found that Bún chả is a Vietnamese dish of grilled pork and noodles that is thought to have originated from Hanoi, Vietnam. The pork is commonly served as meatballs or meat patties on top of a place of white rice noodles and fresh herbs with a side of dipping sauce. 

Whilst that sounds delicious enough, I'm ALL about the veggies - so I thought this would be the perfect dish to turn into a salad; and thus my bun cha salad recipe was born!

Combining fresh herbs, veggies, meatballs and an easy homemade sauce, this recipe is simple, delicious and SO full of flavour.

The meatballs can be made in big batches, cooked and frozen so you can make this at any time - just take some meatballs out of the freezer, reheat them while you're making your salad and you're good to go!

Simple, healthy and delicious! It's also a great make ahead recipe and can easily be taken to work or school - just separate the salad, dressing and meatballs and put them all together when you're ready to eat.

So let me share the recipe with you! >> 

Healthy Bun Cha Salad Recipe

gluten free, nut free, soy free option, clean eating friendly

makes 4 serves, easily made to serve more/less

For the Meatballs: 

Use my Easy Vietnamese Meatballs Recipe traditionally bun cha is made with pork - but you can use chicken, turkey, lamb or beef mince.

For the Salad: 

200g rice noodles, cooked according to package directions and drained

200g baby spinach leaves or mixed lettuce leaves, roughly chopped

1 small handful fresh mint, roughly chopped

1 handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1 handful coriander/cilantro, roughly chopped (if you don't like it you can leave it out - I used to use basil in these kind of recipes instead until I liked coriander)

2 carrots, julienned or peeled with a vegetable peeler to make strips

1 cucumber, julienned or peeled with a vegetable peeler to make strips

For the Dressing: 

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 fresh chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

The juice of one lime 

• Make your meatballs according to the recipe's instructions. 
• To make the dressing: place your sugar, fish sauce, water and vinegar in a small saucepan and heat in a small saucepan over a high heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring frequently.
• Take your saucepan off the heat and add your chilli, garlic and lime juice. Set aside whilst you prepare your salad.
• Prepare all of your salad ingredients, toss with as much of the dressing as you desire and top with your meatballs.
• Serve immediately!

But tell me, 

What's your favourite cuisine? 

I LOVE Italian food and any kind of Asian cuisine. They're polar opposites but both so full of flavour and often focused around fresh produce (and carbs!). Yum!

    

   

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