Green Ginger Rice Noodles

Rice noodles tossed in a ginger-forward “Asian pesto” that’s based on Hainanese Chicken’s ginger shallot sauce. Crazy good, super fast no-cook meal. Weirdly obsessed with how the noodles go green! Serve warm or cold – great for hot days, lunch boxes, or any Asian-ish spread.

Green Ginger Rice Noodles – with chicken, or not

I looked at my recent recipe line up and realised it was all yellow and brown (roasts, chocolate, cheese, cake!). So I headed to the shops with noble leafy-green intentions but got completely derailed by green onions on sale ($2 for a giant bunch!). 💡Lightbulb moment: Asian pesto, aka Hainanese Chicken Ginger Shallot Sauce, but in noodle form!

Not exactly the crisp leafy dish I planned, but hey, I got some green back into the feed. Well done me! 😂

Ingredients in Green Ginger Rice Noodles

Here’s what you need this bowl of green noodles.

1. green ginger sauce

As mentioned above, this is adapted from the tasty Ginger Shallot Sauce that accompanies Hainanese Chicken (yes, yes, one day soon, I need to share mine!). Considerably larger volume, and also I switch some oil with vinegar, else I think the noodles will be too oily. I also use a stick blender instead of mincing everything using a knife. So much faster – and actually more effective to extract flavour out of everything. 🙂

• Green onion – Sometimes called shallots here in Australia, scallions in the US and Canada, spring onions in the UK and Europe. It can be so confusing! They are the long thin green stems that does not have a bulbous lump at the bottom (we call those spring onions here in Australia). To avoid any confusion, see photo above!

  You need a lot – 4 to 5 big stems (ie with 3 or so stems on each stem). 4 cups once chopped into pieces that we then blitz. This is what makes this Asian pesto green!

• Ginger – A good amount of fresh ginger, for bold ginger flavour the Hainanese Chicken Ginger Shallot Sauce is known and loved for.

• Light soy sauce – To add salt into the sauce to turn it into a dressing. Any regular or all-purpose soy sauce can be used, or tamari (for gluten-free). Don’t use dark soy sauce (much too intense, it will ruin the sauce) or kecap manis (too sweet!). More on different soy sauces here.

• Rice vinegar – This adds a touch of tang to cut through the oil, and similar to the soy sauce, it turns an oil-based sauce into a dressing. You can’t just use oil for the liquid, it makes it too oily!

• Grapeseed oil – This oil is made from grape seeds and has a clean flavour that doesn’t tasty as “oily” like other neutral flavoured oils do. It’s a common oil choice for uncooked dressings where other flavours are intended to shine, one that I use pretty regularly in Asian dressings. Substitute with any neutral flavoured oil, like canola, vegetable, or avocado oil.

• Salt and white pepper – White rather than black pepper is generally more common in Asian cooking, though honestly, it’s not a big deal here to switch it with black pepper.

2. NOODLES, CHICKEN, Toppings

I added chicken for protein to have as a meal, but as a side dish I’d switch it out for a vegetable. Cucumber would top my list, cut in baton form. It will look great! As for toppings – a little crunch from crispy store bought shallots and a little vinegary-spice from sriracha are the perfect finishes for this bowl of gingery goodness.

• Cooked chicken (optional) – Use a store bought roast chicken, or poach your own using my foolproof poached chicken method (just leave the chicken in boiled water with the stove turned off, it’s impossible to overcook. Works 100%, every single time).

  Other protein options – A reader suggested prawns/shrimp which would be fabulous! I’d probably cut lengthways into thinner pieces, so they get tangled up in the noodles.

• Dried rice noodles – I used thin rice stick noodles, the kind that’s flat that makes a surface for the Green Ginger Sauce to cling to. Specifically, I use these ones – Changs Pad Thai Rice Noodles, yes I use them for Pad Thai too! I think rice noodles work better than yellow noodles as they have a more neutral flavour so it really lets the flavour of the sauce shine, and the green colour stands out more against white.

  Having said that, I would not hesitate to make this with any type of noodles – dried, fresh, thin, thick, yellow, white, glass, vermicelli, ramen. I’d probably even use pasta, if that’s all I had. 🙂 See recipe card for guidance on quantity for different types of noodles.

• Crispy fried shallots – Store bought, pantry essential. Crispy, salty, oily little bits of goodness that I sprinkle on “everything” – salads, scrambled eggs, soups, stir fries, fried rice! Find them in the Asian aisle of regular grocery stores though cheaper at Asian stores.

• Sriracha – A little vinegary spicy sauce goes so well with the fresh flavours going on here! Also reminiscent of the chilli sauce that accompanies the Ginger Shallot Sauce for Hainanese Chicken (except, today we just squirt from a bottle rather than making it from scratch).

How to make Green Ginger Noodles

The Green Ginger Sauce is made like pesto – blitzed with a stick blender. Food processor doesn’t work – the texture of green onion just isn’t suited to whirling blades, they get stuck on the base and sides too much.

1. Green Ginger Sauce first

1. Blitz part 1 – Blitz 1/4 of the green onion with the ginger, garlic, vinegar and water until the ginger and garlic are pureed, about 10 to 15 seconds. The green onion will be mostly pureed too, that is what makes the noodles green. It’s easiest to use a jug so the head of the stick blender is immersed though a tall bowl will work ok too.

2. Blitz part 2 – Then add the rest of the green onions and soy sauce, then blitz until all the green onion is pesto-like, about another 15 seconds. A stick blender isn’t strong enough to blitz into a smoothie so you shouldn’t have to worry about taking it too far.

No stick blender? That’s ok! Finely mince the green onion with a knife (you’ll need 2 cups tightly packed once finely minced) and grate the ginger and garlic using a microplane. This is the traditional way Ginger Shallot Sauce is made for Hainanese Chicken.

3. Stir the oil and salt in. DO NOT BLITZ! The sheer power of the stick blender will emulsify the oil with the liquids and turn the sauce into a pale green smoothie. How do you think I know this??!! 🫣

4. Set aside for 10 minutes. This is a key step! The sharpness of raw green onion and ginger mellows out, the flavours meld together and the green onion softens and sweats which makes the sauce looser.

   Making ahead – The sauce gets a little darker with time, though nothing like basil pesto does (which goes a green-black if exposed). It’s best to toss through noodles within, say, an hour of making the sauce. Once tossed, the green colour is preserved pretty well.

2. toss, toss, toss!

1. Prepare noodles per the packet directions. Mine says to soak in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain in a colander then give it a rinse under tap water to rinse off excess starch. This helps keep the noodles slippery when tossed with the sauce rather than clumping up into a tangle.

2. Toss the noodles with the Green Ginger Sauce first. Toss well until the noodles turn green! Then add the chicken and toss again. If needed, add a tablespoon of water at a time to loosen the noodles (or oil).

   TIP: It’s important to toss the noodles and sauce without the chicken first. If you put the sauce and chicken in at the same time, most of the sauce gets caught up in the chicken and you don’t get enough on the noodles.

3. Warm or cold – If you want to serve these noodles warm, serve straight away. If you want to have these cold, just leave the noodles for 15 minutes until they cool to room temperature (even an hour!). It is great either way, and I have a little chatter on this below the photo – it is one of the great things about these noodles!

4. Serve – Divide between bowls. Top with a squirt or dousing of sriracha (as you please!) and a generous pile of crispy fried shallots. Then dig in!

Rare dish that’s great warm OR cold

There are very few dishes in this world that I really, truly, hand-on-heart believe are just as good cold or warm. In fact, I can’t think of any off the top of my head – if you can, please comment below! (No, pizza doesn’t make the cut!! Sandwiches don’t count! 😆)

These noodles, however, are genuinely great whether warm or at room temperature. When warm, the aroma and flavour of the ginger and green onion blooms. When it’s cold, it is fresh and bright.

Enjoy as a meal on a hot summer day, take it to picnics, pack into lunchboxes. Make some for today and keep leftovers for tomorrow, knowing you can enjoy them cold or reheat them. Hope you love them! – N x ❤️

PS Also! Because of the reasons outlined above, I see this as a terrific side dish for Asian spreads, especially gatherings because one batch of this recipe is enough to be a side for 8 to 10 people and it can be made ahead. Switch the chicken for cucumber to make it a veg-starch side. I’ve popped directions in the recipe card notes.

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Watch how to make it

Life of Dozer

I made this 3 times in 24 hours leading up to this post. There were leftovers a plenty! Here’s Mr Dozer accompanying me, taking leftovers to a neighbour. Household full of hungry teenagers. Excellent human compost! 🤣