We were having another potluck at church, and I needed to come up with something to take.

You can never have too many dishes at a potluck so I always take two things when we participate, one item for Brad and one item for me.

Since I like to bake, I knew I’d be taking some kind of dessert, so I started looking through the stacks and stacks of recipes I’ve collected over the years to find something new along with some kind of side dish.

When I spotted this recipe for an Asian Ramen Salad, I knew it would be perfect for a potluck so I set it aside and kept looking for a dessert recipe.

I’ll tell you about that recipe next week.

This recipe for Ridiculously Amazing Asian Ramen Salad is from tablefortwoblog.com.

It caught my eye because it didn’t contain mayonnaise.

Ridiculously Amazing Asian Ramen Salad

— 1 (16 ounce) bag coleslaw mix

— 1 cup sunflower seeds (de-shelled/shelled/no shells)

— 1 cup sliced almonds

— 2 (3 ounce) bags of ramen (any flavor, you won’t be using the seasoning packets so it doesn’t matter)

— 5 stalks of scallions, sliced

— 3/4 cup vegetable oil

— 1/3 cup white vinegar

— 1/2 cup granulated sugar

In a large bowl, place coleslaw mix, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, crushed ramen (to crush ramen, place ramen block into a plastic zipper bag and use a rolling pin to gently crush) and scallions

In a large measuring cup, add vegetable oil, vinegar and sugar. Whisk together. Don’t worry if the sugar does not completely dissolve.

Pour oil mixture over the coleslaw mix and toss everything together with a large spatula until everything is coated well.

Cover bowl and chill in refrigerator for at least two hours.

Serve cold or room temperature.

I don’t like a lot of vegetables,, but since I like sunflower seeds and almonds, I figured this recipe could not be all bad.

Instead of putting the dish together Saturday night, I decided it sounded simple enough I could put it together Sunday morning, take it to church and put it in the refrigerator. I knew it would be ready to eat once church was over, since it has to be refrigerated for two hours before serving.

So I would not be overly rushed Sunday morning, I chopped the green onions (scallions) the night before. The ingredients for the recipe said five stalks of scallions. I wondered, did they mean just the green stalks or did they mean the whole onion, including the stalks.

After a little deliberation, I ended up chopping up the entire thing, including the green stalks for this recipe.

I also crushed the ramen noodles Saturday night. I crush them with my hands right in their package.

Before I did anything else Sunday morning, I headed to the kitchen and started putting this dish together.

The recipe stated it would serve eight to 10 people. I decided to double the recipe because I was expecting a lot of people to eat later in the day.

I pulled out the largest bowl I have and poured two bags of slaw mix into it. That filled the bowl so I got another bowl out and put half the slaw mix into it. I added sunflower seeds and almonds to each bowl. Then I added two bags of crushed ramen noodles to each along with the onions.

I placed the vegetable oil, vinegar and sugar in my blender and turned it on for a few seconds then poured an equal amount over both bowls of salad.

Once everything was mixed together, I decided everything would fit in my extra-large bowl so I combined them.

I covered the bowl with plastic wrap, put it in the refrigerator and began getting ready for church.

This salad ended up being one of the first things people had the option to choose from while going through the line and I noticed several people were partaking.

When almost everyone had been served, the committee members began filling their plates.

There was some of this salad left so I put a little on my plate and asked some of the other members of the committee to let me know their thoughts if they ate any of it.

I was a little leery of this since the main ingredient was slaw mix (raw cabbage) and I don’t care for cabbage. But I took a little bite and, to my surprise, thought it was pretty good. I took another bite, and another, and another. As I continued to eat this salad, I thought the recipe title was dead on, because it really is ridiculously amazing. I really did like this dish.

Valerie let me know she had made this recipe before and she liked it and the other committee members did too.

There was a little bit of the salad left and I took it home. Brad and I enjoyed it the next evening at supper. I thought it might get soggy the longer it sat, but it didn’t.

This recipe has found a place in my self-made cookbook.

I’m sure I’ll have several occasions to make it again and again when we attending gatherings.

Sarah Condley is an amateur baker and chef who is compiling a cookbook of her favorite recipes.