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Lemongrass Kangaroo Noodle Salad

4 years ago
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Lemongrass Kangaroo Noodle Salad is fresh, vibrant, and full of bold Australian-Asian fusion flavour. Tender strips of kangaroo are marinated in fragrant lemongrass, garlic, and lime, then quickly seared and tossed through rice noodles with crisp veg and fresh herbs. I love finishing it with a splash of nuoc cham and a sprinkle of roasted peanuts for extra crunch. Light, zesty, and packed with character – it’s a total flavour bomb.

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Yield: 4

Lemongrass Kangaroo Noodle Salad

kangaroo salad
5.0 Stars (6 Reviews)

My lemongrass kangaroo noodle salad is one of my favourite warm-weather dinners. I marinate kangaroo in garlic, lemongrass, and lime, then pan-sear it and serve it over rice noodles with fresh herbs, crunchy veg, and a punchy dressing. It’s light, high-protein, and packed with flavour – like a Vietnamese noodle bowl with an Aussie twist. Perfect for weeknight meals or entertaining, it’s bold, refreshing, and always gets people talking.

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

Lemongrass Kangaroo

  • 400g Kangaroo, thinly sliced into bite sized pieces
  • 1 tbsp lemongrass paste
  • 1/2 tbsp garlic paste
  • 1/2 tbsp ginger paste
  • 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp peanut oil

Noodle Salad

  • 300g rice vermicelli noodles
  • 1 continental cucumber, grated
  • 1 large carrot, grated
  • 1/2 bunch fresh mint
  • 1/2 bunch fresh coriander
  • Fried shallots, to serve

Tangy Vietnamese Salad Dressing

  • 6 tbsp boiling water
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tsp brown rice vinegar
  • juice of 2 limes

Instructions

Lemongrass Kangaroo

  1. Combine lemongrass, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, and sugar in a bowl. Toss through the kangaroo and set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
  2. Heat a wok over high heat until very hot, and then add the oil.
  3. Spread the kangaroo in the wok in a single layer, and sear the meat for about a minute, until browned. Then stir fry for an additional 30 seconds until just cooked. Remove and set aside.

Noodle Salad

  1. Prepare the noodles according to the packet instructions. Once cooked through, rinse under cold water and set aside in a colander to strain for 5 minutes.
  2. Divide the noodles across four bowls, then top with the cucumber, carrot, coriander, and mint.
  3. Top with the Kangaroo, and sprinkle with fried shallots.

Tangy Salad Dressing

  1. Combine all ingredients, and drizzle over the noodle salad before serving.

What I Cook With

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 402Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 1053mgCarbohydrates: 46gFiber: 3gSugar: 17gProtein: 32g

Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

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© Bry
Cuisine: Australian / Category: Dinner
kangaroo salad

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Lemongrass Kangaroo Noodle Salad

kangaroo salad

Cooking with Roo

Back when I lived in the UK, one of the very few things I actually missed was kangaroo. You just can’t get it in Scotland. Venison, yes. Haggis, yes. Kangaroo? Not a chance. Which was such a shame, because I genuinely love it. I would swap out beef for kangaroo any day of the week, and I have done exactly that in this Lemongrass Kangaroo Noodle Salad. It’s the second recipe I’ve shared since easing back into blog life, and I wanted something that felt very me. Something fresh and light but still exciting. Plus, I’m currently obsessed with Vietnamese Bun bowls, and this salad is definitely inspired by them. It’s bright, tangy, herby, and packed full of the kind of flavour that leaves you feeling very happy with your life choices. Especially if you’re lounging outside with a glass of wine and pretending your cat isn’t plotting to steal a piece of meat off the counter.

Cooking with kangaroo isn’t something I grew up with. My parents were firmly against it and claimed it was tough and gamey. But they also overcooked everything, bless them, so… of course it was. Turns out, like venison or lamb, it just needs the right amount of love. I used to cook with kangaroo all the time before I moved overseas –  Kangaroo burgers, kangaroo ragu, and lots of different salads. In fact, one of my favourites was a warm salad with feta that actually inspired my venison salad recipe on the blog!! But this noodle salad has taken over as my new go-to. It’s quicker, lighter, and exactly the kind of thing I want to be eating now that summer’s properly kicking off here in Brisbane.

Now, let me be clear – people are so funny about kangaroo. One bad pub steak and they’re done for life. But the secret is to either cook it very fast or very slow. Nothing in between, and unless you’re braising it for hours, medium-rare is the sweet spot. Especially with a stir-fry like this! It’s tender, flavourful, and has just enough of that gamey edge to make things extra tasty. Plus, paired with rice noodles, loads of herbs, crunchy veg, and a zingy Vietnamese-style dressing? Yesss. It’s also pretty fast to pull together, which makes it ideal for weeknights or lazy Sunday arvos. Honestly, this Lemongrass Kangaroo Noodle Salad is the kind of dish I wish more people would give a go. It deserves a bit more love.

Fresh and Fast

I know it’s been a while since I was posting recipes regularly. Life got busy. Or, more truthfully, life got a bit too much. But I’m getting back into it, and this recipe felt like a good place to restart. It’s simple, bright, and feels like home. And kangaroo is such an underrated ingredient. Lean, packed with iron, affordable, and oh so quick to cook. I don’t think we talk enough about how convenient it is. – you’re literally searing it off for a few minutes, tossing it through some noodles, and calling it dinner. Done and dusted, no oven, no faffing about. Just good food, fast.

The flavours here are bold but balanced. Lemongrass, garlic, and ginger give the kangaroo a punchy marinade that’s fragrant without being overpowering. Then you’ve got the rice noodles, cucumber and carrot for crunch, heaps of mint and coriander to freshen everything up, and the dressing – oh the dressing. It’s tangy, sweet, salty, and the lime makes everything pop. I always make extra because I end up using it on other things later in the week. Cold rice, leftover chicken, whatever I have lying around. Magic.

I’m also just really enjoying creating again. Being back in the kitchen and experimenting with flavours that I love. And as much as I adored my time in the UK, there is something so special about cooking with Aussie ingredients again. We really are spoiled for choice here. So if you’ve never tried kangaroo, maybe let this recipe be the one that changes your mind. Or at least convinces you to give it another go!

Also, I’m making a point to lean into more summer content, so expect plenty more sunshine-friendly recipes in the coming weeks. Christmas is around the corner, and I’ve already got a few ideas that I think you’ll love. But for now, make this salad. Pour yourself a drink. And remember that kangaroo deserves a comeback.

Ingredients Breakdown

The star of this dish is, of course, the kangaroo. You want it thinly sliced and marinated in a mixture of lemongrass paste, garlic paste, ginger paste, fish sauce, sugar, and peanut oil. This gives it a bold, punchy flavour that sears beautifully in a hot pan. Because kangaroo is so lean, the marinade also helps keep it juicy and tender.

For the noodle salad base, you’re using rice vermicelli noodles, which are light and soak up the dressing perfectly. The salad is bulked out with grated carrot and cucumber, giving it a nice crunch and freshness. Fresh mint and coriander add a hit of herbal brightness, and a generous sprinkle of fried shallots on top adds both crunch and depth of flavour.

And finally, the dressing. It’s a simple Vietnamese-style tangy dressing made with fish sauce, sugar, brown rice vinegar, lime juice, and a splash of boiling water to dissolve the sugar. It’s sharp, slightly sweet, and salty in the best way. Everything gets tossed together and the result is a refreshing, flavour-packed salad that’s as easy as it is impressive.

kangaroo salad
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Bry is the food writer and recipe developer behind Cooking with Bry, a recipe platform built on nearly thirty years of cooking experience and over 215 original recipes spanning classic Australian, British, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. She grew up in Western Sydney, where food was never just food. It was Aussie barbecues in the backyard, Middle Eastern bakeries down the road, and Mediterranean kitchens that treated every meal like an occasion. That early, immersive exposure to bold and diverse flavours shaped her palate and her cooking instincts in ways that underpin every recipe she develops today. She spent seven years living in the UK across London and Glasgow, deepening her understanding of British comfort food and traditional European cooking before returning to Australia via Adelaide, the country's undisputed foodie capital, where a passion for exceptional produce and honest, ingredient-led cooking only grew stronger. She's now based in Brisbane, developing and testing all of her recipes from her home kitchen. All of that, Western Sydney, the UK, Adelaide, Brisbane, and everywhere in between, feeds directly into what she cooks and how she writes about it. Her recipes pull from the traditions she knows most deeply, the food that feels like home, and are developed with the home cook firmly in mind. Honest, unfussy, and built around flavours that actually work.
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