Light Thai Glass Noodle Salad (Yum Woon Sen)

Yum Woon Sen is a light and refreshing Thai glass noodle salad using bean thread noodles, shrimp, ground pork, peanuts, and fresh herbs, all tossed in a spicy, tangy dressing. It’s quick to prepare and ready in just 30 minutes.

Thai cuisine is known for its light, refreshing salads, and Yum Woon Sen, a popular glass noodle salad, is a standout. A staple in Thai home cooking and enjoyed worldwide, this versatile dish can be customized with your favorite proteins and vegetables.

During my travels in Southeast Asia, I often ordered Yum Woon Sen Talay, the seafood version packed with shrimp, calamari, mussels, scallops, and black wood ear mushrooms. At home, I usually keep it simple with shrimp and occasionally ground pork, paired with tomatoes for a quick, flavorful Thai salad.

Thai glass noodles (Bean Thread)

Bean thread noodles, often mistaken for rice vermicelli, are made from mung bean starch, not rice flour. Check the package label for “bean thread” or “mung bean thread.”

Naturally gluten-free, these noodles turn transparent when cooked, earning the name “glass noodles.” They expand significantly and stretch, so trim them with kitchen scissors into manageable lengths—but not too short.

Ingredients for Yum Woon Sen

• Glass noodles — These very thin clear noodles are also sometimes labeled mung bean thread, cellophane noodles or Thai vermicelli.
• Shrimp and Ground Pork— use any size shrimp. You can also add more seafood like squid, muscles, crab meat, or scallop. You can use ground chicken instead of ground pork, or omit it.
• Shallot and Green onion – substitute with red or white onion if shallot is not available
• Fresh chili — traditionally, the tiny red bull’s eye chili is used, which is a very spicy chili. If you prefer a milder taste, remove the seeds first or use red finger chili instead.
• For the salad dressing — garlic, fish sauce, lime, and palm sugar are needed. Palm sugar brings a caramel-like sweetness to the dressing. You can use brown sugar if palm sugar is not available. Adjust the flavor balance to suit your preference – more sweet or less spicy, etc.

How to make Thai glass noodle salad

Step 1. Soak glass noodles in water for 5-6 minutes and drain.

Step 2. Meanwhile, make the salad dressing. Pound garlic and chili with a mortar and pestle. Add fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, and mix well. Set aside.

Step 3. Boil a pot of water and cook the noodles for 2 minutes. Take the noodles out of boiling water leaving the hot water in the pot. Drain and cut the noodles to a manageable length with kitchen scissors.

Step 4. In the hot water over medium heat, add the shrimp and poach until fully cooked, about 2 minutes. Take the shrimp out of the pot. Add the ground pork in the hot water and fully cook. Strain the water from the pork using a skimmer.

Step 5. Combine noodles, shrimp, pork, shallot, green onion, tomatoes, and cilantro in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle the salad dressing over everything and toss well. Garnish with roasted peanuts on top. Serve warm or chilled.

Recipe Success Tips

• In Thai cuisine, getting the right flavor balance in the dish is important – sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. The Thai dressing in the salad is made with garlic, chili, fish sauce, freshly squeezed lime juice, and palm sugar. Together, the ingredients produce a wonderful spicy, tangy and sweet flavor balance.
• Try making Thai dressing with a mortar and pestle. Pounding the garlic and chili allows their flavors to infuse with the rest of ingredients.
• Don’t skip the peanuts. They add a nutty crunchiness to the salad.
• Yum Woon Sen is a perfect warm weather salad for the summer, and it makes a cool lunch. And best of all, this dish is so easy to make! You don’t need years of experience cooking Thai food.