Pineapple Coconut Noodles

You can get all the ingredients for this fast, fresh-tasting noodle dish in the Asian foods section of any well-stocked supermarket or natural foods store. Adapted from Vegan Express. Photo courtesy of the blog My Electric Ride. You can serve this, as suggested here, with some steamed broccolini and red cabbage for a dazzling effect.

Serves: 6

• 12 ounces Asian noodles  (see Note)
• 1 tablespoon light olive oil
• 4 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
• One 14.5-ounce can light coconut milk
• One 20-ounce can crushed pineapple, lightly drained (see notes)
• 1/2 teaspoon Thai red or green curry paste,
  more or less to taste, dissolved in a little warm water
• 1 stalk lemongrass, cut into thirds and bruised with a knife, optional
• Juice of 1/2 to 1 lime, to taste
• 2 tablespoons natural granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 to 8 scallions, sliced
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro, to taste
• Peanut halves or crushed peanuts for garnish

Cook the noodles in plenty of rapidly simmering water until al dente, then drain.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a stir-fry pan. Add the garlic and sauté over low heat until golden. Add the coconut milk and pineapple, then whisk in the curry paste. Add the lemongrass, lime juice, sugar, and salt.

Add the cooked noodles to the coconut mixture, along with half the scallions and the cilantro.

Remove from the heat. If you’d like a spicier dish, add small amounts of additional curry paste (dissolved in a little water) and stir in, until the effect is as spicy as you’d like. Let stand off the heat for 5 to 10 minutes, during which time any excess coconut milk will absorb into the noodles. Serve, passing around the remaining scallions and peanuts for topping.

Notes:

This tastes most authentic using flat rice noodles. Follow package directions carefully! Otherwise you can use fine rice noodles, bean thread noodles, or soba.

If you’d like this to be less pineapple-intensive, use half of the can and save the rest for another use, like mixing with your yogurt or hot cereal.

When fresh pineapple is plentiful, by all means, use fresh! About 1 1/2 cups, very finely diced, is about right.

• Find more of VegKitchen’s Vegan Dinner Recipes.
• Here are more recipes using Asian noodles.