I have been wanting to make almond sauce for noodle dishes since I cannot eat peanuts.  This almond sauce is a twisted version of the traditional Indonesian peanut sauce.  In Indonesia a root vegetable similar to ginger – galangal is used in preparation of this sauce.  This noodle dish is a twisted version of Thai dish without any added sauce in it.  The aromatic almond sauce gives a rich taste and flavor to this noodle dish.  While making this sauce, I thought this can be even used as a dip for pita chips.  The sauce can be thickened a little more and garnished with finely chopped tomato and cilantro to be used as a dip.  I have to explore more on this regarding other spices to be included for a dip.

Ingredients:

For the noodle dish:

• 4 oz rice noodles
• 2 medium carrots cut into match sticks
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• 5 oz bean sprouts
• 2-3 teaspoons cooking oil
• Salt to taste

For the Almond Sauce:

• 1 teaspoon cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic chopped into fine pieces
• 1/4 inch piece of ginger crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 tablespoons almond butter (crunchy butter)
• 3/4 teaspoon lemon juice
• Hot water
• Salt to taste

To Garnish:

• 1/2 of small red onion thinly sliced
• Oil for deep or shallow frying
• 1 Spring onion cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• Cilantro leaves chopped
• Cucumber cut into matchstick pieces

 Method:

• Cook noodles according to package directions and drain.  Run over cold water to remove any sticky starch.  Set aside
• In a large skillet add oil and when hot add carrots and saute in medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.
• Add shredded cabbage to the skillet and saute for another 5 minutes.
• Wash and drain bean sprouts well.  Add bean sprouts to the skillet and increase heat to high.  Saute for about 2-3 minutes.  The bean sprouts should still be crunchy and firm.
• Turn heat to very low and add cooked noodles and mix well.  Season with salt.  Let stand in low flame for a minute.  Turn off the flame and cover and let stand.

To make the sauce:

• In a small skillet add oil and when hot add garlic and onion and fry until lightly browned.
• Add crushed cumin, chili powder, and ginger and fry for another minute.
• Add almond butter and lemon juice and mix well and cook in low flame.
• The sauce tend to become very thick sticky – to a dough consistency.  In that circumstance add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time and cook on low flame until sauce consistency is reached. (I had to add about 1/4 cup hot water 1 tablespoon at a time).
• The sauce tend to thicken once cool.  If it gets very thick, just before serving add a little bit of hot water and mix thoroughly.
• Garnish with chopped cilantro.

To prepare the garnish:

• Fry the onion until browned and drain on paper towel.  keep it in a warm place so it stays crunchy.  (you can either shallow fry or deep fry.  I deep fried since it gives the fried onion nice and crispy consistency)
• Split cucumber length wise and remove seeds.  Cut them into matchstick pieces.
• Chop cilantro into small pieces.  Cut spring onion into about 1/4 inch pieces.

To serve:

• Add noodles to a plate and sprinkle with sauce.
• Sprinkle chopped spring onion and cilantro.  Top with fried onion and add the cucumber.
• Yield: 2 main dish.