Easy Rice Noodle Salad

Last night I made this easy and tasty rice noodle salad. I've been trying to save money, and there was a bunch of reduced produce at the Co-op that I wanted to incorporate into a meal. This is kind of an amalgamation of lots of Thai and Vietnamese noodle salad recipes that I found online. You could use pretty much whatever raw vegetables you have on hand. You could also substitute a few ingredients in the sauce- I've made some suggestions below.

Easy Rice Noodle Salad
1 14oz package rice noodles
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
3 carrots, shredded or peeled into strips with a vegetable peeler
4 Napa cabbage leaves, finely sliced
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 package baked tofu, cut into cubes
toasted peanuts for garnish

Sauce
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (could substitute all or part with rice wine vinegar)
4 Tbsp fish sauce (some recipes said to leave this out and add more tamari, I think you could also substitute broth for all or part of this)
2 Tbsp tamari
3 tsp sugar
1-2 tsp chili sauce (or 1/2 a fresh jalapeno, minced)

Start a large pot of water boiling. While you are patiently waiting for the water to boil, chop your vegetables and make your sauce. When the water has boiled, add the rice noodles. Allow them to cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain and rinse immediately with cold water. You can snip them with kitchen shears if you like shorter noodles, or you can leave them long for sloppy noodle slurping. Mix sauce with chopped vegetables and tofu in a large bowl. Add rice noodles and mix well, using your hands to get it all well mixed together. Serve topped with toasted peanuts.  Also makes plenty to take for lunch!