Oriental Ramen Noodle Cabbage Salad

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This ramen noodle cabbage salad is a family recipe made with ramen, toasted almonds, sesame seeds, scallions, and a sweet, spicy dressing. It comes together very quickly and easily makes a lot, making it an excellent side to bring to a potluck!

Summer is coming to Cambridge! Except for the humidity (I never understood the term “dry heat” until I moved here!), summer in Boston is kinda awesome. And nothing says summer to me like barbecued baby back ribs!

Growing up, it felt like my dad made ribs just about every other weekend during the summer. Now, I’m not much of a meat eater (I’ve just never craved it, anyway), but I love my dad’s barbecued ribs. He cooks them on low for hours, slathers them up in some Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce and MMMmmm!! Delicious!  And you know what goes perfectly with those ribs?

My family has been making this salad since I was at least four years old. I was obsessed with ramen noodles as a child, so as you can imagine this salad was one of my favorites! It’s a great side dish or potluck recipe because it’s simple easy to make a lot. And since people always ask me for the recipe, it should hopefully be a hit!

THE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. oil {olive or vegetable}
• 1/4 c. rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 Tablespoon hot chilli oil
• 1 head cabbage, thinly sliced
• 3 packages ramen noodles, cooked
• 1 packet ramen noodle seasoning {chicken or beef}
• 1/4 c. chopped green onions
• 1/4 slivered toasted almonds
• 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

THE DIRECTIONS

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a bowl or small jar and mix. The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for a while, which is a great time saver if you know you’ll be in a hurry and want to make this ahead of time. As it turns out, the little market by my home doesn’t have hot chilli oil, so if you too have difficulty finding this, really any Asian-style chilli sauce should suffice. I actually used Thai Kitchen’s Spicy Thai Chilli All-Purpose Sauce and it did the trick just fine. I put in closer to three tablespoons of this sauce {as opposed to one tablespoon of the hot chilli oil}, though, because it didn’t have the same kick as my parent’s hot chilli oil. And I like kick!

Cut up your cabbage thin. I usually cut the head in half, and just slice down the sides as if you were slicing a tomato or something. Put the cabbage in a large bowl, and add your chopped green onions.

Cook your ramen noodles and drain the water. You don’t want the noodles too soft, but you don’t want them crunchy either. Add one packet of chicken or beef ramen noodle seasoning and mix well. While the ramen is still hot, add it to your cabbage. The heat of the noodles will soften the cabbage leaves.

Toast your slivered almonds and sesame seeds. Watch out! These can burn quickly and smell up the kitchen if they do. I toasted my almonds, tossed them into the cabbage bowl, turned off the heat of the stove, and toasted my sesame seeds using the residual heat. I virtually always end up burning sesame seeds for some reason, but I’ve found this helps avoid that!

Lastly, pour your sauce mixture over your noodles and cabbage! Ramen noodles are all bunched up together so separate the noodles to mix your cabbage and sauce in nicely.

Then enjoy! We usually let this cool in the fridge (it’s a cold salad, which is why it’s so good in the summer!) but if you get too excited, like I usually do, you can eat it right away if you like :) I hope you enjoy this ramen noodle cabbage salad!