A salad that earns its place in your repertoire

Thai cooking rests on four tastes — sour, salty, sweet and hot — and a bowl of herby rice noodles is one of the clearest places to see them working together. The noodles stay soft and slippery, the dressing leans hard on lime and fish sauce, and a generous heap of mint and coriander lifts the whole thing so it never feels heavy. It is cool enough for a hot afternoon, punchy enough to sit beside grilled meat, and quick enough to make on a weeknight once you have cooked it a couple of times.

The quantities below serve four as a side dish, or two as a light lunch. Treat them as a starting point rather than a rulebook. The dressing should taste a little too sharp and a little too salty on its own — once it hits the noodles and the herbs, it settles into balance.

Choose and soak the noodles properly

You want dried flat rice noodles, roughly 3mm wide, sold in bundles. Wider ones are clumsy here; the very thin vermicelli turns to mush. About 200g is right for four people.

Put the noodles in a large heatproof bowl and cover them with just-boiled water. Leave them off the heat for eight to ten minutes, stirring once or twice with a fork to separate the strands. You are looking for noodles that bend easily but still have a little resistance in the middle — they will soften further as they sit in the dressing. Drain them in a colander, then rinse briefly under cold running water to stop the cooking and wash away surface starch. Shake the colander hard and leave the noodles to drain properly for a few minutes. A tablespoon of neutral oil tossed through stops them clumping.

If you are in a hurry, soak them in warm rather than boiling water and check every two minutes. Over-soaked noodles are the single most common reason this salad ends up disappointing.

Make the dressing first

Whisk the dressing in a small jug before you touch the herbs, so the sugar has time to dissolve.

• 3 tbsp fresh lime juice — squeezed just before you use it, from about three limes
• 2 tbsp fish sauce — a good one is worth the money; it should smell of anchovy, not chemicals
• 1 to 1½ tbsp palm sugar — grated or shaved from a block, or soft light brown sugar at a push
• 1 to 2 bird's eye chillies — sliced thin, seeds and all if you like heat
• 1 small clove garlic — crushed to a paste with a pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp warm water — helps everything come together

Stir until the sugar disappears, then taste. It should be bracing. If it makes you wince slightly, you are on the right track.

The herbs are the point, not a garnish

Be generous in a way that feels almost excessive. This is where the salad gets its character.

• A large handful of mint — leaves picked and left whole or torn once; chopping bruises them and turns them black
• A large handful of coriander — leaves and tender stalks, roughly chopped
• A small handful of Thai basil — if you can find it, with its faint aniseed note; ordinary basil is a decent substitute
• 3 spring onions — sliced on the diagonal
• 2 shallots — sliced paper-thin and soaked in cold water for ten minutes to soften their raw bite, then drained and patted dry

Toss the drained noodles with the dressing while they are still slightly warm — they absorb it far better than cold ones. Add the herbs and aromatics last, folding them through with your hands or two forks rather than stirring vigorously, so the leaves stay intact.

Crunch, and how to finish the bowl

Texture is what separates a good version from a great one. Scatter over a handful of roasted unsalted peanuts, roughly crushed with the side of a knife, and a tablespoon or two of fried shallots. Toasting the peanuts in a dry pan for two minutes first makes a real difference. A final squeeze of lime at the table keeps everything bright.

Serve it straight away if you can. The herbs wilt and the peanuts soften within an hour or two, so it is not a dish to make far ahead. If you need to prep, keep the noodles, dressing and herbs in separate containers and combine at the last minute.

Variations and what to serve alongside

The salad works hard as a side for grilled chicken thighs, pork skewers, marinated beef or grilled prawns, and it happily carries a whole meal on its own.

• Add protein: shredded poached chicken, pan-seared tofu, or rare grilled steak sliced thin
• Add vegetables: cucumber batons, sugar snap peas, carrot ribbons, or blanched green beans for extra crunch
• Make it richer: a soft-boiled egg halved on top, or a scattering of toasted coconut flakes
• Turn up the heat: a teaspoon of chilli flakes fried briefly in oil and drizzled over at the end

Keep a spare lime, a little fish sauce and some sliced chilli on the table. Everyone's idea of balance is slightly different, and letting people adjust their own bowl is very much in the spirit of the dish.