Carrot noodle salad

I love raw vegetable noodles. The first time I had them was when my sister and I went out for a girly dinner to a vegan cafe and we both had a raw zucchini pasta with tofu bolognese. Needless to say it was delicious and we have both been talking about recreating it at home for sometime. One thing that had slowed us down was not owning a spiral slicer. I tried the julienne setting on my food processor but the strips where very short and not very "noodle like" and I just couldn't justify the $40 plus it seemed to cost to buy a spiral slicer. Further more, I wasn't going to attempt cutting the noodles by hand either as Kev has to sit in the other room when I cut things as he constantly fears for my fingers (needless to say knife skills are not my strength). Then I was browsing on the beautiful blog oh she glows and saw a great post where she made raw noodles using a julienne peeler! So I went on the hunt for one of these and found the same brand mentioned in the blog for $15 and it works a treat. 

Now that I was armed with my julienne peeler I wanted to make hundreds of different things but I decided to begin by recreating a favorite of our house, a soba noodle salad, without the soba. Now I have nothing against soba noodles, I just wanted to see what it would be like with raw carrot noodles and the result was delicious! Now don't be put of by the whole 'raw' thing, just think of it as a nice light salad. Trust me you will not be sorry if you make this, it is light but filing and reminds me of a delicious Japanese sob noodle salad I've had here and the best part is you can make it in 10mins. Promise!

Ingredients

(serves 1)

salad

1 large carrot

1/2 avocado diced

1/2 Lebanese cucumber diced

2 x tbsp sunflower seeds

a few salad greens

dressing

1 tsp brown rice vinegar
1/2 tsp shoyu 

1/2 umeboshi plum finely chopped (optional but delicious)
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

tahini to drizzel (optional)

Start by using your julienne peeler to create the carrot "noodles" it takes a little practice but then it is about as hard as peeling a carrots skin off once you get the hang of it, and my fingers survived the process. Place the carrot noodles in a small bowl. In another small bowl combine the dressing ingredients and whisk together to combine. Put the dressing on the carrots and leave to sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. By letting the carrots sit with the dressing even for 5-10mins the carrot softens and becomes even more noodle like. When the other ingredients are prepped and the noodles have rested for 5-10mins combine everything in together, drizzle with tahini if you wish (I liked it with and Kev preferred without) and enjoy. 

Notes
I can imagine this would be nice with some pan fried tofu for dinner or it could be part of a non traditional Asian style feast with sushi or Korean BBQ.