Spiralized Sesame Noodle Salad

Spiralized Sesame Noodle Salad - Eat Spin Run Repeat

Grab your spiralizer and brace yourself for oooooooooooodles of noodles!

But first….. a story. About my hair.

spiralized carrot and cucumber

My hair has always been pretty straight, but it’s also suuuuper thick and this has been the case for my entire life. When I was little, I was that girl with the blunt bangs that started at the very top of my head and stopped at my eyebrows, and the rest of my hair was down to my waist. I’m not sure how long it would have stayed like that had my family not gone to Disneyworld one summer and come back with the lovely souvenir of head lice.

I remember spending hours standing in the shower with my mum pouring that gross lice shampoo on our heads and struggling to comb all the critters out of my waist-length locks. That story ended with my sister and I getting boy haircuts, photos of which are thankfully hard to find. Apologies for talking about lice in a recipe post, but I’m done with that now.

edamame

I’m the type that straightens my hair on most days, but occasionally I’ll bust out the curling iron or use my straightener to get some sort of wave thing going on. From what I’m told by my friends, it usually takes them about 10 minutes to make their straight hair curly, but for my thick-as-a-freaking-horse’s-tail mane it’s typically a solid 20 (and that’s after the blowdryer.)

Ages ago I was told by several of these friends that their secret to doing their hair super fast is a wand, something I had not yet invested in. On a whim, I finally got one a couple of weeks ago.

So picture this: It’s after my morning workout and I’m in my bathroom, getting ready for work. I’m listening to the gorgeous Channing Tatum being interviewed by Ellen on Youtube while doing my makeup. It comes time to blowdry my hair, which I typically do upside down because of that whole volume thing. My hamstrings are particularly tight that thanks to a variation of the workout I’ll post for you on Friday, so I decide to seize the opportunity to give ’em a nice strrrrrreeeeeeeetttttcchhh while I’m bent over doing my upside down blowdrying.

sesame seeds

Quite impressed by my improved range of motion after a couple of minutes, I stretched a little further. Evidently I wasn’t paying enough attention to the primary task at hand because before I knew it, a sizeable chunk of my hair was being completely MANGLED by the back end of the blowdryer – the scary black hole bit that’s covered in crazy mesh and starts releasing that horrible burnt hair smell if you get too close. I swear, you let just a few strands dangle near that area and that’s it – it’s like there’s a little dude inside that jumps out, pulls them in and starts eating them, making you wish that you’d NEVER decided to stretch your hamstrings that morning. Hair dryer: 1, Angela: 0.?

avocado and edamame

Trying to be an optimist, I decide that being down a few strands can only accelerate the curling process. I detangle the damage that was still attached to my head, then curl the bottom layer of my hair, then the middle layer, then finally the top with the wand. After all was said and done, I did finish all this a little faster than I would have with my other hair tools (minus the blowdryer incident). I also didn’t burn myself, which I thought would surely happen because that’s just the type of luck I have. My hair looked pretty good but my biggest problem now is that, despite a good dousing of hairspray, about 5 hours later, all that curl is pretty much g-o-n-e.

sliced mango

So tell me, hair mavens of the interwebs who happen to be reading this post (I know there are some of you out there): what’s the secret to making straight hair stay curly all day? If you tell me, I’ll reward you with a big bowl full of tangled veggie noodles mango, snap peas and edamame, all coated in a delightful sesame dressing and topped with crunchy chopped peanuts. This is one of those recipes that is so simple I can hardly call it a recipe, and unlike the case of my hair, tangled is a very, very good thing.

Spiralized Sesame Noodle Salad - Eat Spin Run Repeat

Spiralized Sesame Noodle Salad

by Angela Simpson

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients (2 servings)

  • 1 large carrot, peeled
  • 2 large English cucumbers, ends trimmed off
  • 2/3 cup thinly sliced snap peas
  • 1/2 mango, peeled and sliced thinly
  • 2/3 cup shelled edamame, defrosted
  • 1/4 cup each freshly chopped mint and cilantro
  • sliced avocado, sesame seeds and crushed peanuts, to garnish

For the dressing (you will have some leftover):

  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp low-sodium tamari
  • 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
  • pinch of chili flakes

Instructions

Spiralize the carrot and cucumber. (Alternatively, use a julienne peeler to create long, thin pieces that resemble noodles.)

In a very large bowl, toss the spiralized carrots and cucumbers, snap peas, mango, edamame and fresh herbs.

In a smaller bowl or jar with a lid, combine all ingredients for the dressing. Shake vigorously until an even mixture forms.

Pour some of the dressing over the veggies and toss again to coat.

Divide the salad between two large bowls. Garnish with sliced avocado, sesame seeds and crushed peanuts, and serve.

Click here to print the recipe

Spiralized Sesame Noodle Salad - Eat Spin Run Repeat

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Spiralized Sesame Noodle Salad - Eat Spin Run Repeat

Now over to you. Let’s hear…

  • ….all your hair wand secrets. Especially if you have thick hair and have found a way curl it super fast.
  • Tell me about the hair traumas of your childhood (or adulthood for that matter). Boy haircuts? Dye jobs gone wrong?

9 thoughts on “Spiralized Sesame Noodle Salad

  1. I have straight fine hair, so I’m always looking for volume secrets…best of luck with your quest!

    I too once developed a nice head of lice as a child and my mom tricked me into going to the hair dresser where they CUT MOST OF MY HAIR OFF! I was so sad…I didn’t do a short ‘do for YEARS because I hated that experience…

    Hair is such a delicate issue, isn’t it? Every time I cut it I want it long and when it grows too long I want to chop it all off…go figure 🙂

    1. Haha I think I’m hesitant to cut my hair short again for that exact same reason, Sara! And yes, hair is totally one of those ‘grass is always greener’ things – I want curlier hair and I’m sure girls with curls would kill for straight!

  2. Do you think this would store well or would the cucumber release too much water to make the night before?

    1. Hi Grace! Awesome question. I think the cucumber would release quite a bit of water, but having said that, earlier this week I made the salad in the morning and came home after work to have it for dinner, and it was totally fine. I’d recommend waiting until the time you eat it to add the dressing, and if you find the cucumbers do release too much water, you could use zucchini instead as I’ve found that those don’t lose it as fast. Hope that helps!

      1. I made a simplified massive version of this for a family get together. I left out the cilantro (eww), snap peas (brother is allergic) and edamame (none on hand),, doubled the mango and used cashew butter instead of tahini (none on hand). I didn’t end up making it in advance.

        Huge hit!! Thanks for the recipe!

  3. I have hair that looks like the Paddle Pop Lion got attacked by a group of possums. It’s so thick… I used to have a really short upstyle, one day I got in shower at the end of the day and an actual fly came out of my hair. It must’ve got trapped in there, given up hope and died. For me, they key to all-day-stay is product. Product, product, product. And by that I don’t mean tons of it, I just mean the right one. Depending on what you use you’d put it in before the blow dry or after, but always before the curling. The product I use is called a ‘Moulding Paste’. For me, some styles work better when I apply before drying, some work better afterwards… I guess you’ll just have to experiment. For me, hairspray is good for keeping things in place so I don’t look like a crazy cat lady by 3pm, but it’s not strong enough to hold the weight of my hair in a certain style.

  4. Hi Angela! Can’t wait to try your recipe, and I feel your pain my hair is long and thick as well , to do wand waves I use shine and/or leave in conditioner then blow dry , part and apply mousse from eyebrow level down but stop a few inches from ends , brush through .put oil on ends I use coconut, then take one section from root to base of head brush twist around wand and hold for as long as will hold curl my temperature goes to425 and I hold for 10 seconds go all the way around head, brush through with fingers and hairspray done ! And takes less time with one layer instead of three and the high heat holds the curl faster and longer for thick hair!?

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