Chantelle Nicholson’s Noodle Salad

Welcome to City Harvest Cooking

City Harvest Cooking is a series where guest chefs and cooks join City Harvest in its London food rescue warehouse to create amazing dishes from surplus food. It’s all about being resourceful and getting creative with whatever might be in City Harvest’s food redistribution depot on the day of cooking. The beauty of food redistribution is its unpredictability, although having a network of fresh produce suppliers means that we often see seasonal goods come through our depot doors.

The second chef in our first series of City Harvest Cooking is chef-owner of Apricity, Chantelle Nicholson. Nicholson is a member of City Harvest’s Food Council, a collective that works with City Harvest to achieve its overall aims – Rescuing Food, People and the Planet – through thought leadership, engaging with decision-makers and more.

Check out Chantelle’s incredible noodle salad recipe below that really is spring in a dish! Her selection of seasonal, surplus vegetables from City Harvest’s HQ, paired with punchy Asian flavours such as lemongrass and wasabi, makes this a delicious option for a light lunch or dinner, or a vibrant side.

Thank you to Westmill Foods for the noodles that were used in this dish, as well as Clearspring for the quality ingredients on offer, including premium grade soy sauce, wasabi powder and almond butter. 

Ingredients  (serves 4 as a main, 6 as a side)

Prep time: 20 mins, cooking time: 20 mins, total 40 mins

Noodle dish:

• 3 nests of Lucky Boat thick chow mein noodles (kindly donated by Westmill Foods)

• 200g purple sprouting broccoli, use stems, leaves and florets
• 200g Patty Pan squash, quartered- courgettes can be used as an alternative
• 200g radishes, washed and finely sliced
• 1/2 cucumber, chopped into chunks or thin batons

For the dressing:

• 1 stick Lemongrass, chopped
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 heaped tsp Clearspring almond butter
• Handful spring onions, green tops only 
• 1 tsp Filippo Berio white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Clearspring Soya sauce
• 1 tsp Clearspring wasabi powder
• 1 tbsp room temp water 

Equipment: 

• Food processor or stick blender
• Pan to boil noodles
• Large frying pan or wok 

Method

For the dressing:

1. In a blender, add lemongrass, lime juice, spring onion tops, almond butter, wasabi powder, soy sauce, white wine vinger, and a splash of water and blitz in a food processor until it forms a thick dressing or loose paste. 
2. Set aside.

Noodle dish:

1. Bring a medium-sized pan of salted water to the boil. Once the water is boiling, add the noodle nests and cook until the noodles are al-dente.
2. To a hot frying pan or wok, add a tablespoon of neutral oil or mild olive oil.
3. Add your roughly-chopped broccoli, and quartered patty pans and saute these vegetables until golden but still with a bite.
4. Meanwhile, finely slice your radishes and chunkily chop the cucumber and spring onion whites. 
5. Put the cold veg in a bowl and add the dressing to it, using a rubber spatula to ensure none of the dressing is wasted. 
6. Once the noodles are cooked, strain them and add to the large frying pan with the cooked veg. 
7. Gently pour the dressed cucumber, radish and spring onion onto the hot noodles and vegetables with 
8. Mix gently in the large pan until all the ingredients are components with the dressing. 
9. Plate up onto individual dishes or onto one large serving dish to have as a centrepiece.