This is a great recipe. For our taste I changed a few things. I only use one clove of garlic. 5 was way to much. I also do not use jalapeno's. Instead of 3 tbs fish sauce I use 1 tsp just to add a hint of flavor. Also I use just a few leaves of mint so as not to overpower the salad. We omit the cabbage. As garnish we leave out chili garlic and peanuts to add optionally. The flavors blend over time so this is best on the 2nd day. Nice light fresh flavor for summer.

Liked alot though changed up the sauce (not as much chilantro, etc) and will continue to change up as it was still not quite right. Also used romain lettuce instead of cabage.

I tried this recipe for the first time tonight and my whole family absolutely loved (devoured) it! I added 2 cups of chopped up BBQ pork (cha-siu) bits to the salad and served it as the main course. Vietnamese rolls for appetizers; and shrimp & snap pea stir-fry as a side dish.

The cilantro dressing is soooo good! This can totally be an entree if you add some meat to it, but it is totally fine by itself! The only thing I changed was subbed hoisin sauce and soy sauce for the vegetarian fish sauce (allergic) and omitted the cabbage. Yum!

Very tasty! I opted out of using the fish sauce, and just added a bit more salt. DH also put some hot sauce on his. We decided to eat it w/ chicken, so I skillet-cooked bits of boneless, skinless chicken breast sprinkled w/ salt, pepper, and a generous amount of rosemary.

Yum yum!!! I added some satay-marinated chicken on top to make a meal in itself. It is the perfect summer dish as it requires little cooking/time in the kitchen. I recommend making a double batch of the sauce; you'll want to eat it out of the bowl! Will definitely be making this again

This is a nice light and healthy meal, and very delicious. I substituted kale for the cabbage (for a little more nutrition) and dried thai peppers for the jalapenos. I'll be making this again.

I made this with minor changes due to being unable to locate rice noodles today. I used some ramen-like asian noodles instead. My package was 8oz and it made 4x what I needed so I don't know if you really need 12oz of rice noodles based on the quantity of sauce. I used hoisin sauce instead of fish sauce and added 1 tbsp of rice vinegar at the end just to help blend the flavors. I chilled it and served it cold with the "Asian Salmon Cakes with Creamy Miso and Sake Sauce" recipe from this site along with some steamed baby bok choy. It was a great dinner. Will make this again.

Our vietnamese resturant closed and I was upset. I started looking for a good noodle bowl recipe and this one is real close. I use a drop of Chili oil instead of a jalapeno. I also use shredded lettace instead of chinese cabbage, because that how the resturant did it. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.

Wonderful Salade even with out the pepper.

I thought this was quite good but could have used a bit more dressing. I used 2 red chili padis instead of jalapeno (jalapenos aren't Vietnamese!) and put the cabbage in with the noodles to cook. Also reduced the fish sauce to 2 tbsp and sugar to 1 tbsp. It was missing something...not sure what...but still pretty good.

I omitted the jalapeno as I don't care for them, and used cashews instead of peanuts as that's what I had on hand. This was pretty good, but I didn't like the rice noodles at all - the texture was a little slimey and unpleasant. If I were to make it again, I would use angel hair pasta instead.

All other ingredients is right just want to confirm that in Vietnam people don't put napa cabbage (chinese cabbage) in noodle salad at all, but regular lettuce! The only cabbage salad dish in Vietnam is the one mixes with boiled shredded chicken and nuoc cham (fish sauce) that sometimes people substitute with napa cabbage. Also, we don't have jalapeno pepper in Vietnam, it's actually red chilly that have bigger size that look like a jalapeno but taste different.

This was exactly the sort of salad I was hoping to find. I loved the fresh mint/lime/peanut combination. The only change I made was to decrease the fish sauce (because my husband hates it), which I subbed with a little salt.