Vietnamese Noodle Jars with Herbs and Peanut-Lime Dressing

Why it works

The layering is the whole technique, and it is the reason a salad can be made on Sunday and eaten on Thursday. Dressing at the bottom, then the sturdy shredded vegetables that benefit from sitting in it, then noodles, then anything delicate on top, sealed away from the liquid until you tip it into a bowl. What you get is a genuinely raw, high-volume lunch four days into a week, which is the meal most people give up on first. Nutritionally it leans on the herbs, which in Vietnamese cooking are eaten by the handful rather than sprinkled: mint, coriander, and Thai basil in quantity contribute a real polyphenol load rather than a decorative one. Edamame carries the protein, and the lime and fish sauce give the salt-acid balance that makes vegetables worth eating cold.

Ingredients

• 200 g dried thin rice noodles
• 250 g shelled edamame, cooked and cooled
• 2 large carrots, julienned
• 1 small red cabbage wedge (about 200 g), finely shredded
• 1 cucumber, halved and sliced
• A large bunch each of mint, coriander, and Thai basil
• 40 g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
• For the dressing: 3 tbsp lime juice, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter, 2 tsp honey, 1 grated garlic clove, 1 tsp grated ginger

Method

1. Cook the rice noodles to just under the package time, rinse under cold water until completely cool, and drain very well. Warm noodles will steam the jar and ruin the texture.
2. Whisk the dressing ingredients until the peanut butter has emulsified and no lumps remain.
3. Divide the dressing between four wide-mouth jars. This is the bottom layer and it stays there.
4. Layer in this order: carrot, then cabbage, then cucumber, then noodles, then edamame. The sturdy vegetables sit in the dressing and improve; the noodles stay above it.
5. Top with a generous handful of herbs and the peanuts, seal, and refrigerate. Tip into a bowl and toss just before eating.