Thai rice noodle salad

1. step 1
2. Place the noodles and beansprouts in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 4 mins, or until the noodles are tender. Drain, then cool under cold running water and drain again. Return to the bowl.
   4 minutes
3. step 2
4. Stir together the lime zest and juice, fish or soy sauce and sugar. Stir into the noodles with the red onion and lettuce.
5. step 3
6. To make with mince, heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and stir-fry 500g minced pork, a small knob of grated ginger and pinch cayenne pepper or chilli powder for 10 mins, until the mince is browned and cooked through. Mix into the noodles, divide between four bowls and serve warm.
   10 minutes
7. step 4
8. To make with steak, make the rice noodle salad. Heat 1 tsp sunflower oil in a frying pan. Tip 2 tbsp sesame seeds onto a plate. Rub 1 tsp oil into 4 x 175g sirloin steaks and press into sesame seeds. Fry for 5 mins for medium rare, turning halfway. Leave to rest for 5 mins, then thinly slice. Toss 1 deseeded and shredded red chilli, and a handful mint leaves into noodles. Top with steak to serve.
   5 minutes5 minutes

Cooking notes

Most vegetable dishes scale linearly, but be mindful of pan crowding — vegetables that should brown will steam instead if packed too tightly.

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When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.