Crunchy Ramen Salad

There are may versions of this Midwest classic, but I think this version is pretty close to whatever the original was, and I’m sorry I don’t have a story for the history of this strange Crunchy Ramen Salad concoction. I remember my grandma making it. I thought it was weird (this is salad?) but I enjoyed the sweet crunch, so why not add it to the Wisconsin food blog?

It’s pretty easy, and you can tweak it to your liking. All you need is:

a bag of coleslaw mix
sunflower seeds
sliced almonds
ramen noodles
green onion
vegetable oil
distilled vinegar
sugar

First you mix the salad, then you mix the dressing and toss it all together. I added a bit of salt & pepper to mine since the nuts were raw, I felt the salad could use a little balance of salt to the sugar.

Alterations:

Make the coleslaw mix from scratch with Napa cabbage (about 3 cups), red cabbage (about 2 cups) and carrots (about 1 cup).
Use organic ramen noodles.
Add extra carrots, shredded or sticks.
Add sesame seed, or swap the vegetable oil for olive oil or avocado oil.
Swap the white vinegar for rice vinegar.
Add a tablespoon of soy sauce to the dressing.
You can toast the nuts in the oven, or stir fry the nuts with the noodles in butter for extra buttery crunch.

This crunchy ramen salad is a perfect potluck or cookout side dish; you could call it “disappearing crunchy ramen salad”!

Tips:

To crush the ramen noodles, you could use a rolling pin. I put mine in a quart Ziploc bag (don’t seal the bag), and ended up kind of hammer-rolling it out to bite-size pieces.

Also note that this salad is best eaten the day it is prepared. When you let the ramen noodles sit in the dressing, they will absorb it and no longer be crunchy.

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