Sesame Ramen Noodle Salad

While I am a big fan of noodles and pasta in soups and sauce dishes, I have never much cottoned to pasta salads. Macaroni salad, to me, has always just ... felt sad. Still, there has always been one pasta salad that I liked. Not just liked, but really liked: Sesame Noodles.
There are a wide variety of recipes for sesame noodles. Many use peanut butter or a similar nut or vegetable base. This recipe does not.

Ingredients
2  3-ounce packages of Ramen Noodles (optional flavor choice)
2  Tablespoons of toasted Sesame Oil
¼ Cup Soy Sauce
2  Tablespoons Brown Sugar (optional light, dark, or even
    granulated sugar)
2  Cups Water (Organic, non-GMO, gluten-free water is best.)

Optional Ingredients
Rice Vinegar
Vegetable Oil
Toasted Sesame Seeds

Preparation
A. In a saucepan add 1 Ramen Flavor Packet to 2 Cups of water.
B. Bring water to boil.
C. (Optional) Break up noodle blocks. (Best done before you open the wrapper.)
D. Add 2 packages of Ramen Noodles to boiling water. Be sure all noodles are in direct contact with water (the reason you might want to break up the noodle blocks). Boil for 3 Minutes.
E. In a bowl, mix Brown Sugar, Soy Sauce, and Sesame Oil together.
F. Add cooked Noodles to Sugar-Soy mixture, stir together.
G. (Optional) Sprinkle with toasted Sesame Seeds.

Enjoy warm.

Wikimedia Commons

For a cold salad, prepare as above, adding 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil and 1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar to the Soy-Sugar Mix. Chill prepared noodles, covered, in refrigerator.

Serves one. Or four.

;^)

Bean Salad

Also known as Three Bean Salad, Five Bean Salad, Seven Bean Salad, etc. (In some quarters it's bad form to use an even number of bean types; I've heard it said an even number can mess with your bean Ch'i. Just sayin'.)

A bean salad dressed up with
red bell peppers, peas and onions.
(Image courtesy**)

This is another salad that can escape notice because of the somewhat atypical base ingredients—canned beans. It can also serve as a side dish and will meet most vegan standards. Essentially, this recipe is a marinade for beans; therefor, some post-assembly wait-time is involved.

Ingredients
~ Three (or more) 15 oz. cans, one each of any of the following: kidney beans, navy beans, red beans, black beans, fava beans, lima beans, green beans, yellow (wax) beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), pinto beans, soybeans, and in Half Cup amounts, corn (can, fresh or frozen), green peas (ditto), diced carrots (ditto again), diced (fresh or frozen) bell peppers (red, green, orange or yellow), diced (fresh) onions or green onions—or whatever strikes your fancy. Onion is probably the most common non-bean addition. Go for good color and texture variance.
~ Half Cup apple cider vinegar
~ Quarter Cup vegetable oil
~ Quarter Cup sugar

Preparation
~ Drain the beans well. If they are packed in a sauce, rinse them with water.
~ In a mixing bowl, combine the vinegar and sugar and whisk together thoroughly to dissolve the sugar. Add the oil and whisk again. Taste the marinade and adjust the ingredients to your preference. Whisk again as necessary.
~ Mix in the beans (and what-all), gently. All of the beans and any other veggies should rest in the marinade; if you need more, whip some up.
~ Put the bowl in the 'fridge to chill for at least 90 minutes.

Serve
Drain about half the marinade (for service, we don't want the beans swimming in marinade) and put the beans in a serving bowl. A slotted serving spoon is preferred. Serve cold.

Variations
Limited only by your imagination. Both the vegetable ingredients and the marinade are primed for creativity. Pimento, diced avocado, sliced olives, sliced bananas (just kidding), diced chiles, diced jicama, minced garlic or, just before serving, add some diced pepperoni, ham or corned beef. Of course, there goes your vegan crowd.

;^)

Five Cup Salad

A fancy-dress version of the
Five Cup Salad (Image **)

(also known as: Ambrosia)

This is an easy one that many people know, but, because of the somewhat unusual combination of ingredients, folks tend to overlook it when shuffling through their on-board memory files. It can serve as a side,  salad or even dessert. It's always popular at potlucks, too.

Ingredients

~ Canned mandarin oranges (15 ounce can, or more)

~ Canned pineapple, small pieces (15 ounce can, or more)

~ 1 Cup shredded, sweetened coconut

~ 1 Cup miniature marshmallows

~ 1 Cup sour cream

Preparation

~ Drain the fruit well. (The juice can be saved for other purposes, basting, for instance, or even for drinking, with the addition of a proper thinning agent, like, ohhh, maybe vodka, tequila or rum.)  

~ To combine, first thoroughly stir together the sour cream and the coconut. Next, stir in (gently) the fruit. Finally, mix in (gently) the marshmallows.

~ Chill (the salad, not you). (Well, you too. After all there is that leftover juice.)

You will be tempted to eat this right away. Don’t. If you chill it in the ‘fridge for at least six hours, the flavors will meld and the cold will bring up the sweetness. It will taste 47.5% better. Guaranteed.

If you want to dress this up

Drain a small jar of maraschino cherries (no stems), then let the cherries rest on a paper towel for at least 10 minutes. (If you don’t get all the juice drained off, the cherries will bleed messily on the salad.)

Put the salad in a decent-looking serving bowl or container and smooth the top. Dot the cherries in a pleasing pattern on top.

Serve cold.

Variations

Yogurt or whipped topping can be substituted for all or part of the sour cream.

Other fruits can be added or substituted, including grapes, bananas, strawberries or other sweet berries, or crushed pecans.

;^)