Atho Burmese noodle salad.

Yum

Atho is a Burmese noodle recipe quite common in the streets of Tamil nadu especially Chennai. This is more like a noodle salad, where you prep up and assemble and toss them together as Atho. This noodle recipe has all the flavors and textures and above all its quick to prepare.

Boiled Noodles - 2 cups
red chillis whole - 4
onion - 2 sliced to make fried onions
garlic - 1 full pod, deskinned and sliced
raw onion - half sliced
cabbage - 1 cup grated
coriander leaves - 1 cup
dried channa dhal (puffed lentil) - 1/2 cup
tamrind juice - 1 cup
hard boiled eggs (optional)


Serves : 2                             Prep/cook time : 15 minutes

Prep/cooking

To get started. Boil noodles of your choice, drain the water and keep them aside. Normally as a street food they add food color,orange to the water when boiling the noodles. Here i haven't added any food coloring.

In a wok, pour a teaspoon of oil, and roast the red chili's, and grind them coarse in a blender. if you already have chili flakes at home, you can skip this step. To the same wok, pour about 5 tablespoons of oil for making the fried onions, add the sliced onion, fry until they turn slightly brown. Remove the fried onion from the oil and place them in a paper towel. To the same oil, add the sliced garlic and roast them on low flame, once they turn golden brown remove them and keep aside, do not burn the garlic as it may leave bitterness to the recipe when used. Reserve the oil for making the atho. 

In a mixer or blender , add about half a cup of dried channa dhal, the dhal that is used for coconut chutney is needed, grind them to a powder and keep them aside.

Meanwhile have the cabbage grated, some thinly sliced raw onions, finely chopped coriander leaves, and squeeze tamrind juice from tamrind.

Next step is tossing them together 

Take a bowl, add the boiled noodles, cabbage, raw onions, top it up with some fried onions, fried garlic, fried red chilis, tamrind juice, a tablespoon of powdered fried channa dhal, reserved oil about two teaspoon, mix them really well. Normally in street food they use hands to mix them up. Here i used the spatula to combine well, add salt and garnish with coriander leaves

For non vegetarians, you could also toss some eggs or fried chicken, in streets they crush and mix the hard boiled eggs to this noodle preparation. 

This is an easy and quick burmese noodle recipe. This atho is sometimes served with burmese soup or curry made using banana stem to go with it. I hoped you liked this recipe, do give it a try, it is flavorful and crunchy with all the ingredients.

As always happy cooking!