Vietnamese Zoodle Salad

Pho, Vietnamese summer rolls, and fried spring rolls were always great, but the Vietnamese rice noodle salad was almost always my first choice, whenever we’d go to a Vietnamese restaurant.

The carbby hit from the vermicelli rice noodles, flavourful grilled meat, and crunchy vegetables, topped with lots of fresh herbs and a tangy Vietnamese rice vinegar dressing. SO GOOD!

Bun Bo Xao (beef) was usually my go-to when we’d go to restaurants, I’d usually make Bun Ga Nuong (Chicken) when doing them at home - like my Curried Chicken Vietnamese Vermicelli Noodle Salad - ... and I loved Bun Cha Gio (with fried spring rolls) before I ended up with a gluten problem.

... yeah, Vietnamese cuisine was something I missed when going low carb!

It was a pretty passable Vietnamese cold noodle salad, just swapping the rice noodles out for konjac ones.

In the past few months, though, I’ve gotten into making these with zoodles - zucchini noodles. TOTAL game changer!

I love having lots of fresh vegetables with my bun salad, and what better way to do that, than to do the whole thing on a base of zucchini?

So much less work than using konjac noodles, too!

Meal Prep!

One thing I’ve really loved about making these keto Vietnamese noodle salads is that they work REALLY well as a meal prep option. That’s not really something I ever did with rice vermicelli (it dries out), or konjac.

I’ll spiral up a bunch of zucchini, divide it out into bowls. Sometimes I’ll top them with the fresh veggies, sometimes I’ll just prep all the toppings and pack them up.

Then, when it’s time to serve, out come the bowls and toppings. We assemble and dress our own, and we’re good to go!

As a note: Salad bases and prepped veggies will keep for about 4-5 days in the fridge, but we try to use them up within 3 days.

This is because that’s the longest I’ll trust a rotisserie chicken for!

Ingredients

This easy Vietnamese noodle salad recipe uses really simple ingredients. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding everything you need in any larger grocery store.

As always, I have a few ingredient notes for you:

Zucchini

Zucchini takes the place of rice vermicelli noodles, which is naturally the traditional ingredient used in vermicelli bowls.

When selecting your zucchini, aim for medium sized zucchinis. Smaller makes for more tender noodles - without the hassle of huge seeds - but SMALL zucchinis are a pain to spiralize.

In terms of spiralizer, I use This one - and LOVE it!

You want one that gives you the option of making thinner noodles.

Fresh Ingredients

Aside from the zucchini, this recipe uses a fair amount of fresh produce: English Cucumber, Carrot, Fresh Mint, Cilantro, and Green Onions.

You can use pre shredded carrot, but the taste and texture will be better if you grate or julienne carrots yourself. The pre-shredded carrots tend to taste flat and dry, IMHO.

If you’re not a fan of cilantro, you can switch up your mix of fresh herbs to use some Thai basil instead.

All that said, feel free to vary your own salad ingredients, based on what you’re used to / like in Vietnamese salad.

Crisp veggies like bean sprouts, red bell pepper, red cabbage, and romaine lettuce are all great additions.

Chicken

This recipe was never really intended to share with the world, it’s just a quick dinner that’s in regular rotation in our house.

As part of the meal prep / easy meals setup with this, I use a store-bought rotisserie chicken.

It’s my protein of choice for a bunch of reasons - it’s cheap, very little work, and the marinated chicken is always juicy and flavourful. Also, it leaves me with a carcass to make soup off!

Feel free to use boneless skinless chicken breast or chicken thighs cooked however you like them, though. My Dutch Oven Pulled Chicken works well.

Otherwise, consider your other favorite proteins. Fast fry steak strips - cooked up with a bit of sesame oil, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper - is a great alternative.

Sweetener

There’s a fair amount of room for customization here, based on your needs and preferences.

I use a few drops of monk fruit to sweeten the dressing a little. You can use your choice of sugar substitute to keep this keto, but personally, I’d avoid erythritol (and erythritol blends).

If you’re not as worried about the carb count, honey works best - but you could use granulated sugar if you prefer.

Coconut Aminos

Coconut Aminos are a low carb, gluten free, soy free alternative to soy sauce. It tastes VERY similar, but not quite as salty.

You can substitute soy sauce or tamari, you’ll just want to taste it before adding any salt.

Seasoned Rice Vinegar

Depending on your grocery store, you can find this vinegar in with the regular vinegars, in the Asian aisle, or both. I use it in many Asian - and Asian inspired dishes, as well as when making sushi.

If you can’t find it, you can use rice wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or lime juice instead.

Fish Sauce

This is a condiment that’s popular in Asian Cuisine. It’s a main component of nuoc cham sauce, which our zingy dressing is loosely based on.

You can find it in the Asian aisle of most grocery stores, usually near the soy sauce.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Ground Black Pepper
Fresh Garlic Cloves
Salt

... I just don’t have anything else to add, as far as these last few ingredients go! Fairly simple ingredient list.

How to Make Vietnamese Zoodle Salad

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, here is a visual walk through.

Tangy Dressing

Measure the coconut aminos, fish sauce, vinegar, and garlic cloves into a measuring glass, small bowl, mini food processor, or cup for an immersion blender.

Whisk or blend together to combine.

Add a little sweetener, to taste, then season with salt and pepper.

Transfer dressing to a mason jar and chill in the fridge until ready to use.

Salad Prep

Remove the skin from the chicken, reserve for snacking or another use.

Pick the chicken meat from the bones, break into bite sized pieces. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

Chop the Mint and Cilantro, mix together.

If you’re not using it right away, transfer to an airtight container and chill until you’re ready to make your salads.

Peel and julienne the carrot, and chop the green onions.

Cover with plastic and chill until you’re ready to use them.

Cut the ends of your zucchini and spiralize each of them into a large bowl (or onto a cookie sheet), breaking them off every so often for easier eating.

Divide zucchini noodles into 6 bowls. If you’re not using them right away, cover with plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.

Salad Assembly

Uncover as many salads as you’d like to serve right away.

If you want to warm your chicken, do so now. Sometimes we’ll warm it to just a little warmer than room temperature, usually we’ll just use it cold, right from the fridge.

Top each salad with your cucumbers, julienned carrots, green onions, fresh herbs and chicken. You can either do this scattered (as I like it!):

Serve immediately.

More Keto Main Dish Recipes

Looking for more low carb main dishes to feed your whole family with? I've got some delicious recipes for you!

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Chicken Parmesan
Coconut Shrimp
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Everything Bagel Chicken
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Fried Chicken
Italian Wedding Soup
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Keto Lasagna
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Tuna Noodle Casserole