Why This Recipe Works

Shredded napa cabbage and cooled rice noodles bring crunch and chew to this refreshing dinner salad. Before searing the shrimp, we tossed it with fish sauce and allowed the shrimp to sit as we prepared the salad’s other components, which gave salt and glutamates from this pungent condiment time to penetrate the flesh. The salt seasoned the shrimp and helped it stay moist, while the glutamates enhanced the shrimp’s natural flavors. We tossed the cabbage and noodles with a coconut-milk dressing spiked with lime juice, sriracha, sugar, and more fish sauce and then topped them with the seared shrimp, clementine segments, scallions, fresh herbs, and chopped dry-roasted peanuts.

Before You Begin

The quality of coconut milk matters here; we developed this recipe with Aroy-D. Shake the coconut milk well before opening. We like the sweetness of clementines and how easy they are to peel, but 1 cup of chopped orange or grapefruit segments can be substituted.

Instructions

Combine 1½ pounds jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined, and 1 tablespoon fish sauce in bowl; set aside. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add 8 ounces rice vermicelli and cook until tender. Drain noodles, rinse under cold water, then drain well again.

Whisk ⅓ cup canned coconut milk, 2 tablespoons sriracha, 1 teaspoon grated lime zest plus 3 tablespoons juice, 1 tablespoon sugar, and remaining 2 tablespoons fish sauce together in large bowl. Add 4 cups thinly sliced napa cabbage and noodles and toss to combine. Divide among 4 serving bowls.

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add shrimp and cook until opaque, about 2 minutes. Divide shrimp, 3 segmented clementines, 2 thinly sliced scallions, 2 tablespoons chopped mint, 2 tablespoons chopped basil, and ¼ cup chopped salted dry-roasted peanuts evenly over salads. Serve.