Chilled Noodle Salad with Ginger Wasabi Dressing

This Chilled Noodle Salad with Ginger Wasabi Dressing is a refreshing and tasty recipe! The tangy ginger wasabi dressing is so delicious! Get the recipe and read about my SUPER fun experience with Chef Lynn Crawford!  

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a media event at the SAIT Polytechnic Culinary Campus here in Calgary featuring Chef Lynn Crawford, to celebrate the launch of the new Catelli^® Healthy Harvest^® Ancient Grains pasta.  We were able to watch a cooking demonstration, then participate in a hands-on cooking session with Chef Lynn.  SO MUCH FUN.  And delicious too.  She created a pesto pasta dish and an incredible marinara sauce with rotini noodles that knocked my socks off.  I need to find her marinara recipe and make it at home…it seriously was the best marinara sauce that I have ever had…she served it with rotini noodles, fresh parmesan and fresh mozzarella cheese.  I die.

About Chef Lynn Crawford

Anyway, if you are not familiar with Celebrity Chef Lynn Crawford, let me tell you a little bit about this well accomplished chef! Chef Lynn is a Food Network Celebrity Chef and celebrated award-nominated cookbook author (why don’t I have her cookbooks?!); Chef-owner of Ruby Watchco, a market-inspired, chef-driven restaurant in Toronto (on my must eat at list); Host of the Food Network Canada’s Pitchin’ In (best show ever); judge of the Food Network Canada’s Chopped Canada (love Chopped!); Previous executive chef of the Four Seasons Hotel in both Toronto and New York; and the first female Canadian invited to participate in the Food Network’s Iron Chef America and Top Chef Masters Season Five.

So basically she’s awesome.

Watching her cook, and having her teach us tips for cooking pasta, for cutting red peppers and other various kitchen tips was amazing.  Then she fed us and turned us loose in the SAIT Culinary Kitchen to whip up a batch of Chilled Noodle Salad with Ginger Wasabi Dressing (get the recipe below).  The whole night was so great.

But my favourite part of the night was this.  Yes, I’m cooking with Chef Lynn.

I was lucky enough to have her choose me to come up and work on a dish with her.  Now if you know me in real life, this kind of thing is basically a nightmare for me.  For real.  To get up in front of people and cook, with a real life chef is absolutely frightening.  BUT how could I say no?!  Opportunities like this don’t happen every day.  And deep down somewhere inside of me this is also a dream come true. So up there I went.  And I loved every second of it.

Right away she put me to work mixing noodles, slicing veggies…

Then it was time to plate the dish.  I knew I was in for it.

Twirl twirl twirl that pasta!  I couldn’t for the life of me get it to twirl.

And all the while Chef Lynn was yelling “Pretend you’re on Chopped Canada!!”  LOLOLOL  YES CHEF!

Get that dish plated!  Throw on that cilantro!  Bam!

And the final result…let’s just say I have no mad plating skills.  But what an experience…look how happy I am in this picture!  She was a hoot!

What a great night!

Chilled Noodle Salad with Ginger Wasabi Dressing

Now let’s get you fed!  We made this Chilled Noodle Salad with Ginger Wasabi Dressing in the kitchens after the presentation and let me tell you first hand that it’s easy to make, healthy and so delicious!

This dish is made with the Catelli^® Healthy Harvest^® Ancient Grains pasta which is tossed with veggies and a tangy ginger wasabi dressing…yum.

Chilled Noodle Salad with Ginger Wasabi Dressing

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This Chilled Noodle Salad with Ginger Wasabi Dressing is a refreshing and delicious dish!

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 8 minutes
• Total Time: 18 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings 1x

Ingredients

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Chilled Noodle Salad:

• 1 – 340 g pkg spaghettini
• 2 cups snow peas (thinly sliced diagonally)
• 1 cup shelled edamame
• 1 small cucumber (sliced diagonally)
• 2 cups napa cabbage (finely shredded)
• 1 cup red pepper (cut into matchsticks)
• 3 green onions (thinly sliced)
• 1 ripe avocado (sliced)
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
• 2 tbsp black sesame seeds

Ginger-Wasabi Dressing:

• 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
• wasabi to taste

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Instructions

Making the noodle salad:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, then drain well. Rinse under cold water until well chilled. Transfer to large bowl and set aside.
2. In a pot of boiling water, cook snow peas and edamame until tender-crisp. Drain and rinse under cold water until well chilled, then set aside.
3. Meanwhile, halve the cucumber lengthwise and use the end of a spoon to scoop and discard seeds, then cut the cucumber into julienne strips.

Making the Ginger-Wasabi Dressing:

1. Whisk together rice vinegar, canola oil, soy sauce, lemon juice and zest, brown sugar, sesame oil and ginger. Season with wasabi to taste.

Putting the salad together:

1. Add the cucumber, snow peas, edamame, napa cabbage, red pepper, green onions and avocado to noodles then toss with enough dressing to coat.
2. Garnish with cilantro leaves and black sesame seeds.

Notes

Tip: If you have time, you can chill the noodle dish by refrigerating for 1 to 4 hours.

More Delicious Pasta Salad Recipes:

• Bruschetta Pasta Salad
• Greek Pasta Salad
• Easy Italian Pasta Salad
• Creamy Ranch Pasta Salad

Looking for more delicious salad ideas?  Follow me on Pinterest!

Have a delicious day!