Thai Beef and Noodle Salad (Yum Nua)
This Thai Beef Salad is a go-to recipe in our house during the summer. Tender pieces of marinated skirt steak are grilled and served over chilled rice noodles with a spicy and tangy dressing that will blow your mind! This recipe is perfect for hot days when you want a refreshing and satisfying meal.
“I have made this maybe 20 times. I even scaled up to make at a dinner party. It is an amazing, fresh exciting dish that is firmly locked in as one of my all time favourite recipes.” – David, So Much Food reader
Table of contents
Your Favorite Thai Flavors, in a Salad!
Spicy beef salad (Yum Nua) is a popular dish in Thailand, and it’s one of my personal favorites to order at my local Thai restaurant. But now I can finally make it at home, too!
Tender pieces of beef are tossed in a spicy and tangy sauce made of mostly fish sauce and lime juice with assorted veggies and fresh herbs. To make it more hearty, I added some thin rice noodles.
There are so many contrasting textures that keep this salad interesting. If you’re someone who thinks salads are boring or not filling enough, you have to make this yum nua salad!
A Few Ingredient Notes …
Depending on where you live, you might not keep your pantry stocked with all of the ingredients needed to make this spectacular Thai spicy beef salad. A few special items to make sure you have on hand include:
- Beef. I personally really like skirt steak, so that’s what I used. Look for one that’s at least 1/2-inch thick for best results. You could easily swap in flat iron steak, ribeye, sirloin steak, etc. so long as it’s tender and has good marbling.
- Lemongrass. This is most often found in Thai cuisine and lends a citrus zing to many recipes. It adds tons of flavor to both the dressing and steak, so I highly recommend hunting some down! Lemongrass can be found at pretty much any Asian market, plus a lot of well-stocked grocery stores.
- Fish sauce. This may be an ingredient you’ve never worked with, but it’s a staple in our household. It’s tangy and salty and adds tons of umami to a number of dishes. It’s a main component of the dressing and marinade; it doesn’t make the salad taste fishy, just rich and flavorful.
- Rice noodles. The noodles here really are optional and this salad could be served with rice instead, but I loved it all together. I used thin rice noodles, but use your favorite.
- Thai chilis. Also known as ‘birds eye’ chilis, these bite-sized bad boys pack in a good amount of spice and a fruity flavor. If you’re really sensitive, I would skip them altogether.
- Toasted rice powder. This totally makes the dish! I wasn’t able to find any (except on Amazon), so I made my own by toasting some uncooked rice grains in a skillet and then blitzing them into a fine powder. (Check out my exact instructions in the recipe card below.)
Tools Needed
- Grill or Grill Pan
- Mixing Bowl
- Sharp Knife
- Cutting Board
Step-By-Step Overview of Making This Thai Beef Salad with Rice Noodles
- Marinate the beef. You only need to marinate the steak for 30 minutes, but if I have time in the morning I’ll whisk together the marinade first thing and throw the beef in to soak all day.
- Whisk together the dressing. You could also measure everything into a jar, screw on the lid, and shake to combine. Wait to use the dressing until the sugar has fully dissolved.
- Cook the beef. Depending on the time of year, I’ll either cook the marinated steak in a cast iron skillet on my stovetop or I’ll fire up the grill and grill it. Either way, allow the beef to rest for 10ish minutes to give the juices time to redistribute before slicing.
- Assemble. I like to toss the beef and rice noodles with the dressing, then pile on the toppings from there.
Make-Ahead Option
This is my go-to main dish salad on busy summer nights, because it’s so easy to throw together and can be partially prepped in advance. I like to marinate the steak ahead of time (it can sit in the marinade up to 8 hours), cut up the veggies and herbs, and make the dressing ahead of time.
Once that’s all prepped, the steak can be cooked in less than 10 minutes and the salad can be assembled. You can even create a build-your-own bowl situation!
Recipe Variations to Try
- Swap the protein: If you don’t want to use beef, you could swap in chicken, shrimp, or thinly sliced pork!
- Make it vegetarian: You could marinate tofu for a totally plant-based dinner.
- Make it gluten-free: Replace the soy sauce with a gluten-free alternative, such as coconut aminos.
- Omit the rice noodles: Yum nua salad is traditionally made without rice noodles, I just like to add them in to make the salad more filling!
If you do give this recipe a try, I love hearing about it! Leave a comment with a star rating below. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter and never miss a new recipe! You can also snap a photo & tag @JENNYGOYCOCHEA on Instagram.
More Thai-Inspired Dishes to Make
- Thai Basil Chicken
- Thai Steak Salad
- Thai Panang Curry
- Thai Grilled Shrimp
- Thai Chicken Wonton Soup
- Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Soup)
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Thai Beef and Noodle Salad Recipe (Yum Nua)
Ingredients
Steak:
- 1 1/2 lbs. skirt steak, trimmed of silverskin and excess fat
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce or sambal
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon very thinly sliced lemongrass, tender inner leaves only
Dressing:
- 1 tablespoon very finely minced lemongrass, tender inner leaves only
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 2 Thai chili, finely minced (1 if you're sensitive to spice)
- 2 limes, juiced
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon chili garlic paste or sambal
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
Salad:
- 8 oz thin rice noodles
- 2 beefsteak tomatoes, cut into wedges
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- mint leaves
- Thai basil
- cilantro leaves
- 2 tablespoons toasted rice powder*
- lime wedges, for serving
Instructions
- Marinate the steak. Combine all the marinade ingredients and whisk together. Place steak in a zip-top bag and pour the marinade on top. Seal and marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes or in the fridge for up to 8 hours.
- Make the dressing. Whisk together all the ingredients until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.
- Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions. Drain and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Transfer them to a large serving bowl.
- Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the steak from the marinade and shake off any excess. Sear the steak for 3-4 minutes per side, transfer to a cutting board, and rest for 10 minutes. Slice against the grain. Alternately, the steak can be grilled on a hot grill for the same amount of time.
- Assemble. Arrange the sliced steak on top of the noodles and nestle in the tomatoes and sliced shallots. Drizzle the dressing evenly over everything and top with toasted rice powder and all the fresh herbs. Serve with lime wedges.
Notes
It’s important to me to show great respect to the cultures from whence the inspiration for a lot of my cooking comes. While I don’t claim for this recipe to be authentic, I am drawing inspiration and flavors from a dish (and a country!) with a lot of history.
Here are some related recipes from my favorite AAPI creators.
- Classic Thai Beef Salad from Beyond Kimchee by Hyegyoung (Holly) Ford
- Easy Thai Beef Salad from Omnivore’s Cookbook by Maggie Zhu
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Rate & Review This Recipe
Another absolute ringer!! 10/10 flavor and spice. My husband wants to try to make the flavor into a pho base now because it was that good!
This is heaven. Who would eat a grilled steak when they could have this?
I fully intended to make the rice powder but somehow got started without it, and I used ramen noodles, which probably isn’t the best choice, but it was still just a delight on a plate. Next time I’ll follow directions better, but this is a gorgeous dish and I plan to eat it all summer. Thankfully, it’s only June!
Jean,
So happy you loved it! I love the substitutions you made–to me, cooking is all about working with what you have on hand so kudos to you!
Hi Jenny.
I have made this maybe 20 times. I even scaled up to make at a dinner party. It is an amazing, fresh exciting dish that is firmly locked in as one of my all time favourite recipes. I live in Papua New Guinea and the freshness of the lemon grass and chilli grown locally really lift the dish.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your kind words and for following along from so far away! Definitely envious of the freshness of your ingredients!