Vietnamese-style crispy duck salad with blood oranges
Serves: 4
Prep time: 45 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Vietnamese-style crispy duck salad with blood oranges
Make the most of the short blood orange season (roughly from January to March) with this delicious Vietnamese-style crispy duck salad
Serves: 4
Prep time: 45 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
572Kcal
Fat
21gr
Saturates
5gr
Carbs
51gr
Sugars
22gr
Fibre
6gr
Protein
42gr
Salt
3.6gr
Sarah Randell
Our former Food Director, and previously food editor to Delia Smith, Sarah has written more than 1000 recipes for the magazine. She is also author of Family Baking and Marmalade; A Bittersweet Cookbook among others.
Sarah Randell
Our former Food Director, and previously food editor to Delia Smith, Sarah has written more than 1000 recipes for the magazine. She is also author of Family Baking and Marmalade; A Bittersweet Cookbook among others.
Ingredients
- 4 duck legs, each weighing about 200g
- 1 tsp flaked sea salt
- 135g dried rice noodles
- 1 medium carrot, peeled
- ½ cucumber
- 2 spring onions
- 4 radishes
- 100g sugar snap peas
- 200g Chinese leaf (about 1⁄2 a whole one)
- 1 x 28g pack mint, leaves only
- 1 x 31g pack coriander, leaves only
- 3 blood oranges
- 50g unsalted peanuts
For the dressing
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 2 red bird eye chillies, finely chopped (leave the seeds in for authentic heat)
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- juice of 1 blood orange
- 2-3 tbsp Thai fish sauce
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
Step by step
Get ahead
Make the dressing, soak the noodles and shred the salad ingredients a few hours ahead. Prepare the herbs and oranges, storing separately in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Put the duck legs on a baking tray and season them generously with crushed flaky sea salt and black pepper, rubbing it into the skin. Roast the duck for 11⁄2 hours. The skin will be really crisp and the flesh soft and tender.
- For the dressing, toast the sesame seeds in a small pan for about a minute, giving them a stir now and then. Tip them into a jug, add all the other dressing ingredients and stir together.
- Cook the rice noodles following pack instructions, then drain and rinse in cold water, shaking off the excess. Tip into a large bowl.
- Slice the carrot and cucumber into matchsticks. Transfer to another large bowl. Trim the spring onions and slice them into shreds of a similar length. Trim the radishes and slice into matchsticks. Slice the sugar snaps in thirds lengthways. Shred the Chinese leaves (discard any core) and the mint and tear any larger coriander leaves in half. Add all these ingredients to the bowl with the carrot and cucumber as you prepare them.
- Remove a slice from the top and bottom of each blood orange, then stand it on its end and remove the skin and pith by slicing downwards, turning the orange as you go. Slice the orange into rounds and halve the rounds, removing obvious pips. Add the oranges (and any juice) to the bowl with the salad ingredients; gently mix using two spoons. Roughly chop the peanuts; set aside separately.
- To serve, layer the salad and noodles on 4 large plates; sprinkle with the peanuts.
