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Thai Glass Noodle Salad with fresh vegetables! A delicious, crunchy, fresh, healthy, low-carb Asian salad that is quickly prepared!

Thai Glass noodle salad, also known as Yum Woon Sen in Thai, is next to the papaya salad, one of the most popular and well-known Thai salads! It consists mainly of cellophane noodles (or glass noodles, hence the name) tossed with quite a spicy dressing.
The authentic recipe is prepared with shrimps, minced meat, and fish sauce. However, I’ll show you a vegan recipe variation with crunchy vegetables that tastes just as fresh, delicious, spicy, and intense as the original.

By using cellophane noodles made of green beans and mung beans, this salad is low-carb, gluten-free, and very healthy.
Learn how to make Thai glass noodles salad and bring authentic Thai cuisine to your home. You can serve it as a starter with any Thai dish or as a low-carb meal for lunch or dinner. The recipe is easy and quick to prepare.
Ingredients
See recipe card for quantities.

- Cellophane Noodles (Glass Noodles) → The main ingredient! You must squeeze the cooked cellophane noodles very well by hand to remove any excess liquid. This helps prevent your salad from being too watery, which would result in a diluted and less intense dressing.
- Celery → The authentic recipe uses Chinese celery, which is more delicate and less intense than regular celery. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find Chinese celery; your best shot is a large Asian market. Therefore, it’s OK to use regular celery’s light green inner stalks.
- Tomato, Carrot, Peanuts → The crunchy vegetables provide a little more flavor in this vegetarian version. The peanuts simply belong in any Thai salad!
- Scallion → Authentic Thai glass noodle salad is prepared with coarsely chopped shallots and onions, which give the salad a lot of spiciness. Personally, I prefer to prepare the salad with scallion, which is much milder.
- Cilantro → The stems are full of flavor and therefore used for the dressing. Use the cilantro leaves to decorate the salad.
- Garlic, Thai Chili, Ginger, Lime Juice, Soy Sauce, Sugar, and Salt → Ingredients for the glass noodle salad dressing. Originally, it is prepared with fish sauce. However, soy sauce is a great alternative to make glass noodle salad vegan!
Instructions
This visual step-by-step instruction will help you along the way – definitely recommended if you’re a cooking beginner!
- Cook cellophane noodles according to the package instructions. Rinse under cold water, drain, cut noodles 2-3 times with a pair of scissors, then squeeze out all excess liquid by hand. → This last step helps prevent your salad from being too watery, which would result in a diluted and less intense dressing.
- Roughly chop the cilantro and set the stems aside for the dressing.
- Dressing: Place cilantro stems, garlic, ginger, and Thai chilies in a mortar and pound into a paste. Add sugar and salt, pound until dissolved. Add lime juice and soy sauce, stir to mix. → If you don’t have a mortar, finely mince cilantro stems, garlic, ginger, and Thai chilies, then place them with the sugar, salt, lime juice, and soy sauce in a bowl and stir to mix.

- Place cooked cellophane noodles, cherry tomatoes, scallion, carrot, celery, peanuts, and chopped cilantro leaves in a large bowl.
- Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.

Storage
Store glass noodle salad in an airtight container in the fridge. Keeps fresh for 2 days.

More Asian Recipes You’ll Love
- Vermicelli Noodle Salad
- Thai Cucumber Salad
- Asian Cucumber Salad with Sesame Seeds
- Thai Drunken Noodles – Pad Kee Mao
- Vegetarian Pad Thai
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📖 Recipe

Thai Glass Noodle Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 3.5 oz (100 g) cellophane noodles
- ½ cup (75 g) cherry tomatoes or one tomato, sliced
- 1 scallion or shallot, sliced
- 1 carrot julienned
- 1 stalk celery finely sliced (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp peanuts crushed
- ½ bunch cilantro chopped
Dressing
- ½ bunch cilantro stems chopped
- 1 clove garlic sliced
- ¼ inch piece (½ cm) ginger sliced
- 2 Thai chilies seeded & sliced
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 3 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Cook cellophane noodles according to the package instructions. Rinse under cold water, drain, cut noodles 2-3 times with a pair of scissors, then squeeze out all excess liquid by hand. → This last step helps prevent your salad from being too watery, which would result in a diluted and less intense dressing.
- Roughly chop the cilantro and set the stems aside for the dressing.
- Place cooked cellophane noodles, cherry tomatoes, scallion, carrot, celery, peanuts, and chopped cilantro leaves in a large bowl.
- Dressing: Place cilantro stems, garlic, ginger, and Thai chilies in a mortar and pound into a paste. Add sugar and salt, pound until dissolved. Add lime juice and soy sauce, stir to mix. → If you don't have a mortar, finely mince cilantro stems, garlic, ginger, and Thai chilies, then place them with the sugar, salt, lime juice, and soy sauce in a bowl and stir to mix.
- Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
Notes
- Use Chinese celery if you have the chance to (only available in large Asian Shops). Otherwise, the inner stalks and leaves of celery will do fine.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
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