How to Make Yum Woon Sen | Glass Noodles Salad

Craving a healthy Thai noodle salad dish that you feel good after eating it, but is also an easy weeknight, flavorful dinner? Yum Woon Sen is it!

Why you’ll love this recipe

• A Thai cooking class instructor (aka me, Sherri! :)) will be sharing with you all the top secrets of how to cook Yum Woon Sen easily at home
• One of those recipes you feel like you just go back from the spa after eating because it’s so refreshing!
• Easy, weeknight, flavorful Thai noodle dish?! What’s not to love?

Sherri’s Story

The first time I had Yum Woon Sen I cried, and it wasn’t from tears of joy.

It was my first week in Bangkok, and I was eating at a random restaurant maybe on the third floor of CentralWorld, one of the huge malls in Bangkok. I had just met my boss, but hadn’t started work, and the two other Thai friends I knew from my UNC-Chapel Hill days were working that day, so I was exploring downtown Bangkok on my own.

As I sat in the mall restaurant alone at a table, I peered out the glass window at the hordes of Thais and foreigners ambling confidently with friends or family, carrying shopping bags, knowing exactly where they were going. It was one of those moments where I was surrounded by people, but felt so alone.

I had looked through the 10 page menu full of glistening pictures of Thai food, and the one with the clear glass noodles, colorful veggies and crushed peanuts jumped out at me so I ordered it—but no one was there to tell me how crazy spicy Yum Woon Sen could be. 

Especially for a farang (foreign) tongue that wasn’t used to ped mak mak (very spicy) yet.

It was pretty common those first few weeks in Thailand for me to be scarfing down delicious food with tears streaming down my cheeks, and a huge smile on my  face because even though my mouth and sinuses couldn’t handle the spice yet, it just tasted so good I couldn’t stop eating.

But this time I was crying not only because it was so spicy my mouth felt like it was just struck by a fireball, but I wanted to keep eating because I was hungry, I was also crying because I was getting over jet-lag, and culture-shock and loneliness were slowly setting in.

After those tears, and after the first week though, things only got better and better, not only for me, but for my tongue. 

I just kept eating spicy Thai food, even though the spicy-induced tears came and the flames lit up my mouth. Over time my tongue adjusted. so now I can confidently say, “Chop ped mak mak! (I like very spicy!)” to any Thai street vendor, and eat most spicy Thai dishes without much pain.

And over time, I just kept pushing through the culture shock confusion and the pain of wanting to fit in and have friends that comes with being a newcomer to any place, and soon Bangkok became my second home. 

I became best friends with my co-workers, found an awesome church where I felt at home, found a Thai man I fell in love with, and I became one of those people walking around in CentralWorld who knew exactly what I was doing.

I just had to keep going through the flames, and eventually passed through, not even realizing how much stronger I was becoming.

What is Yum Woon Sen?

Yum Woon Sen is full of fresh veggies, crushed peanuts, and a spicy, lime dressing that puckers your lips and revives your senses.

What’s so magical about Yum Woon Sen are the glass noodles aka bean thread noodles. 

When I first saw them, I was a bit freaked out. They are translucent, super thin, slippery, and almost look like they are noodles aliens brought over from another planet. 

You can usually find glass noodles at your local Asian market, or on Amazon.

Yum Woon Sen Ingredient Notes

You’ll need the following Yum Woon Sen ingredients to make it at home:

• 2 bundles Thai Bean Thread Glass Noodles : aka mung bean glass noodles are made of water and starch from mung beans, so glass noodles are naturally gluten-free. 

• 2 servings shrimp: we prefer jumbo shrimp, but just use whatever you have on hand

• 1 lb ground turkey: typically ground pork is used, but we like turkey since it’s healthier, but you can also use beef, chicken, whatever you prefer, or tofu, sliced into 2 in. long by 1/4 in. wide pieces.

• 3 roma tomatoes, cut into chunks: I like roma tomatoes because they aren’t too juicy and a perfect size

• 1 white onion: gives a sharp, intense taste to the salad

• Salad greens of choice, 2 cups: we like to put in hearty greens like spinach and arugula

• 1 c. fresh roughly chopped cilantro: the spicy, herby sweet leaves give a clean sharp flavor to the salad.

• 1 c. fresh mint: helps bring cooing balance to the salad from the spicy peppers, smaller leaves are best, if they are bigger, tear them instead of cutting, since cutting them with a knife will blacken them

Yum Woon Sen Dressing

• 1–2 tbsp. fish sauce: tightens the taste of the dressing and concentrates the flavors.

• 2–8 Thai chilies, smashed and sliced thin (depending on spice preference): give a lovely heat to the salad, if you don’t want it as spicy, remove the seeds and white membrane.

• 2 garlic cloves, minced: gives a meaty body to the dressing 

• 2 tsp. sugar: helps to impart a clean, sweet flair to the dressing.

• 3 limes, juiced: the main souring agent in the dressing.

• 1/2 c. ground peanuts: a nice crunchy topping to sprinkle on at the end

How to make Yum Woon Sen : Step by Step

Start boiling the water for your noodles.

Add the garlic, cilantro stems, and Thai chilies to a mortar and pestle, or food processor, and pound it into a rough paste. 

Add sugar, and pound until the sugar is dissolved. Add fish sauce and lime juice, and mix briefly. When you taste it, you want lime flavor to be in the lead, followed by a salty flavor, and the sugar is just used to balance out the flavors.

Soak the glass noodles for about 10 minutes in warm water.

Boil about six cups of water or so and add pre-soaked glass noodles.

Let the glass noodles cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until noodles are cooked, but not mushy.

Don’t drain the glass noodles, instead take out the noodles using tongs, and place them in a mixing bowl. 

Keep the hot water you just used for the noodles at a gentle boil, so you can use it to cook the shrimp. 

Add your shrimp, and blanch them for about 30 seconds until cooked through.

Take them out with tongs, and add to the bowl where you have your veggies.

Keep the hot water going in the pot still, but drain out some until you have a few inches left so you can use it to cook the ground turkey. 

Add the ground turkey, and break it up quickly so you don’t have big clumps. 

Add 1 tbsp or so of fish sauce to season the meat some.

Once cooked through, add it to the bowl where you have your shrimp and veggies. Add 1 tablespoon of the cooking liquid to the bowl as well.

Add the glass noodles to the bowl, and put the dressing directly on top of the noodles to help them break up.

Mix up everything, and then add the cilantro leaves, mint and peanuts. Enjoy!

Recipe Tips & Tricks

• If you want to serve this later, like with any salad, make sure you wait to add the dressing right before serving it or the veggies and noodles will get soggy and weird over time.
• Don’t forget to keep your hot water from the noodles! It makes it so much easier to cook the shrimp and ground meat when you don’t have to worry about reboiling hot water 2 more times. 
• Use fresh lime juice! Don’t try to substitute it with lemon or bottled lime juice, if at all possible get it from fresh limes since that’s a leading flavor in the dressing and nothing compares to fresh!

Storage

• Storage: Like with any salad, Glass Noodle Salad should be eaten the day of, and will become soggy if you try to keep it for longer than the day. If you want to prep it in advance, keep the dressing, noodles, veggies, and protein separate until the day of, and mix it all together. 

Glass Noodle Salad Ingredient Additions and Substitutions

When cooking Thai food I’ve had people ask me what substitutions they can use since it can be hard to find Thai ingredients. 

If you have the option, definitely always try to take the effort to get the Thai ingredients, but if you just can’t find them, and I’ve been there! here are some great subs:

• Glass Noodle substitute: Rice vermicelli, Soba noodles, or Angel hair pasta
• Thai chilies substitute: serrano pepper, cayenne pepper or habanero pepper
• Shrimp: Feel free to leave out the shrimp or substitute it with tofu.
• Peanuts: If you can’t eat peanuts, try cashews instead, or pumpkin seeds.
• Veggies: Be creative! Add whatever veggies you enjoy in a salad and see what works.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Yum Woon Sen Glass Noodles made of?

Yum Woon Sen is made of glass noodles aka bean vermicelli noodles aka mung bean noodles. They are thin and transparent like glass, which is where they got their name. 

Mung bean glass noodles are made of water and starch from mung beans, so glass noodles are naturally gluten-free. 

Glass noodles are made by mixing processed mung bean flour and water. Then that dough gets mixed, pulled, washed, and stretched. 

Then the mixture gets pressed through what looks like a giant sieve, and the glass noodle strands are draped over dowels and dried.

What does Yum Woon Sen mean?

Yum means salad, or literally translated “to mix together”, and Woon Sen means glass noodles, aka bean vermicelli noodles, so Yum Woon Sen is translated into English as Glass Noodle Salad. 

Is Yum Woon Sen Healthy?

Since they are made out of mung bean, Thais who are on a diet love these eating these noodles instead of rice noodles.

If you have a lot of veggies to use up and are in the mood for a fresh Thai dish, try out Yum Woon Sen today!

Other noodle recipes you’ll love

Love Thai noodle dishes? Here are some others you should try:

• Pad Woon Sen
• Drunken Noodles
• Pad See Ew

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