Asian-Style Ham Noodle Salad—what to Do With Ham Leftovers

"Do you have pounds of leftover ham in your refrigerator that you don't know what to do with? Do you find you can't face another plate of, well, sliced ham? Here is an easy and fabulous trick to serve your loved ones leftover ham that has almost no hint of its former origin. You will win praise and admiration, and secretly know you were smart to use up rather than toss out. Also, if you love Asian restaurant ginger-soy salad dressing, you will find this great recipe below."
 
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photo by ElizabethKnicely photo by ElizabethKnicely
photo by ElizabethKnicely
Ready In:
16mins
Ingredients:
10
Serves:
4
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ingredients

  • 1 (12 ounce) package chow mein noodles (they look like spaghetti noodles)
  • 2 cups cooked ham, thinly sliced
  • 12 cup pineapple, thinly sliced (optional)
  • 1 cup vegetables (thinly sliced carrots, cooked haricot verts green beans, mushrooms, asparagus cut in 1-inch pieces, )
  • 3 cups salad greens
  • 1 tablespoon ginger juice (grate fresh ginger, and then squeeze out the juice)
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 13 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
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directions

  • Cook the chow mein noodles as directed, rinse in cold water to stop them from growing, and then drain and then set aside.
  • Julienne the ham--long, thin slices work well with the chow mein.
  • Add in veggies. Make sure if you are using crunchy veggies to cook first if necessary (green beans).
  • If you have pineapple on hand, julienne it, and add to the ham.
  • Toss ham-veggie mixture with Asian Restaurant Ginger-Soy salad dressing (recipe below, the last five ingredients from the list above), along with the noodles, and serve over a bed of fresh greens, such as spinach, romaine, endive, etc.
  • Asian Restaurant Ginger-Soy Salad Dressing—Grate enough fresh ginger root (a couple of tablespoons) to squeeze out 1 tablespoon of ginger juice. To the ginger juice add 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons rice vinegar, and 1/3 cup of salad oil. If you have sesame seeds, toss in a tablespoon (especially love the toasted kind, called irigoma). Whisk and then serve. Remember how to make this dressing--it is to-die-for delicious with so many other salads, and is ridiculously easy to make.

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Reviews

  1. This is super simple and a great way to use up all those Easter leftovers. I really liked the salad dressing, although I can never find fresh ginger so I had to use ground ginger. I also doubled the dressing because it just didn't seem to be enough. I used steamed carrots, asparagus and mushrooms in our salad. Made for Zaar Chef Alphabet Soup Tag Spring 2013.
     
  2. This is fabulous!
     
  3. This was delicious and a great way to use leftover ham and a lot of vegetables. I chopped up some bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, celery, asparagus, ginger, and green onions. I didn't have any chow mein noodles so I just use thin spaghetti noodles. Next time I will try to use ginger juice instead of diced ginger. I am already thinking of when I can make this again.
     
  4. I didn't have pineapple, but someone had given me a jar of julienned carrots, so I used that, green onions, and celery. I used olive oil...not sure what salad oil is? But that did make it a little oily. Wasn't sure how to get ginger juice, so I chopped the ginger up as fine as I could. I didn't have the chow mein noodles, but I had egg noodles, fixed them, then chopped them up fine. I happeend to have some croutons and sprinkled that on top. It was all wonderful! Will definitely make again. Thanks!
     
  5. Awesome idea! DH and I really liked it. The ginger juice idea is brilliant - the dressing is incredibly easy and I know I'll use it for other dishes in the future. I used rice noodles, which worked great, and I actually liked the reheated noodle/vegetable/ham mixture as a hot dish the next day better than a salad - but it was good as a salad too! I'll be keeping this recipe.
     
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Tweaks

  1. This was delicious and a great way to use leftover ham and a lot of vegetables. I chopped up some bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, celery, asparagus, ginger, and green onions. I didn't have any chow mein noodles so I just use thin spaghetti noodles. Next time I will try to use ginger juice instead of diced ginger. I am already thinking of when I can make this again.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Tumerica is a freelance writer who has written essays that have appeared in the Santa Barbara News-Press, and in Santa Barbara’s arts and entertainment paper, The Independent. She regularly writes book reviews of graphic design and other non-fiction books for Technical Communication, the journal of the Society for Technical Communication. And she has written articles on writing for other writers, appearing in The Solitary Scrivener, and T-Zero. Tumerica is a fanatic foodie and gourmet cook who has placed in a cooking contest and is working on a curry cookbook. She has published food articles for The Gastronome, the American magazine for the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs. She also pens the occasional restaurant reviews, but admits to enjoying doing the research more than the actual writing. She also writes food articles for her blog at http://tumerica.blogspot.com with a focus on learning the underlying principals behind cooking, rather than slavishly following recipes. Tumerica is a published poet, with her works appearing in the zine, Renaissance, and in a poetry anthology published by Glass Tesseract. She has recently finished her first book of poetry, Red and Green: On Passion and Ecocentrics, and is currently searching for a publisher. She has had many incarnations in her job history. Among her titles have been: bassoonist, saxophonist, Jazz and Blues singer, graphic designer, science journal editor, narrator, teacher, artist, homeless shelter manager, and art model.
 
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