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Kyaukswe thoke (Burmese mixed rainbow salad)

June 25, 2018

My favorite traditional burmese salad is called Kyaukswe Lethoke, literally translated to “Noodles mixed with your hands”. The salad calls for a wide variety of shredded ingredients and is made much easier with the use of an electric food processor with a julienne blade, or a mandolin slicer. The key to this salad is the balance between sour, salty, spicy, and umami dressing elements. Traditionally this salad will use fish sauce for saltiness and dried shrimp powder for umami flavor, but these can be omitted to make the salad vegetarian, in which case I suggest adding a mushroom flavored salt to make up for both ingredients.

I love to make this salad for gay pride in particular and play up the “rainbow” elements of the dish. The red comes from the chili powder and the rice which is flavored with sriracha. The orange color will come from carrots, and I like to get multicolored carrots to add yellow and purple colors as well to expand the spectrum. Green will come from cilantro and bean sprouts. Blue/purple will come from red cabbage.

Tip: You can peel the potatoes easily by scoring the middle of the potato before you boil them (as seen here)

  • 10 servings
  • 20 mins
  • 20 mins

    • Ingredients

    • 8 oz egg noodles
    • 8 oz rice sticks or vermicelli
    • 4 tbsp sriracha or sambal
    • 1 cup white rice, uncooked
    • 1 pound potatoes
    • 4 oz bean sprouts
    • 1/2 cup cilantro, minced
    • 8 oz carrots
    • 1 red onion, sliced finely into half-rings
    • 2 tbsp roasted chana flour
    • 6 cloves garlic, finely sliced
    • 16 oz red cabbage
    • 2 tbsp dried shrimp, finely ground
    • 2 tbsp fish sauce
    • 4 tbsp tamarind paste
    • 2 tbsp paprika
    • 2 tbsp turmeric
    • 2 tbsp chili powder
    • 4 tbsp garlic oil
    • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
    • for garnish fried garlic

    Instructions

    1. Toast the chana flour in a dry skillet over low-medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until it turns light brown and aromatic. Set aside.
    2. Cook the white rice according to package directions, adding the sriracha sauce to the water before boiling for a rich red color.
    3. Boil the potatoes until fork-tender. Once cooled, peel and quarter them.
    4. Cook the egg noodles according to package directions.
    5. Soften the rice sticks or vermicelli by soaking them in hot water.
    6. Blanch the bean sprouts in boiling water for 3 minutes, then transfer to an ice bath to cool. Drain well.
    7. To make the fried garlic and garlic oil, thinly slice the garlic cloves and fry them in the vegetable oil until golden brown. Strain the garlic, reserving the infused oil. Let the fried garlic cool on a paper towel.
    8. Use a food processor with a julienne blade or a mandolin to shred the carrots and red cabbage.
    9. In a large bowl, combine the toasted chana flour, sriracha rice, egg noodles, rice noodles, potatoes, bean sprouts, red onion, carrots, cabbage, and cilantro.
    10. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, tamarind paste, garlic oil, paprika, and turmeric to create a dressing.
    11. Pour the dressing over the salad, add the dried shrimp powder, and toss thoroughly. This is traditionally done by hand or with food-safe gloves.
    12. Serve at room temperature, topped with fried garlic chips and extra chili powder to taste.

      Written by Will Chiong who lives and works in New York building useful things.