Spicy Peanut Noodles
My daughter eats these cold from the fridge. My boys heat them up. I add extra sriracha to mine. This recipe serves every temperature preference and every heat tolerance level in our house simultaneously, which makes it basically the only dinner that doesn’t require a negotiation session before cooking.
Ingredients
For the Peanut Sauce
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter natural or regular, both work
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon sriracha adjust to taste
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 2-3 tablespoons warm water to thin the sauce
For the Noodles
- 12 oz noodles 340g; spaghetti, linguine, rice noodles, or soba
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cucumber, julienned
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup crushed peanuts
- 3 green onions, sliced
- Fresh cilantro
- Lime wedges
- Sesame seeds
Method
Make the Sauce
-
Whisk all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. The peanut butter will resist at first — keep whisking and adding warm water until it becomes a pourable, creamy consistency. Taste it: it should be salty, nutty, tangy, and sweet, with a kick of heat from the sriracha. If it’s too thick, add more water. Too salty, more honey. Too tame, more sriracha. This sauce is the personality of the entire dish, so get it right before moving on.
Cook the Noodles
-
Boil noodles per package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water — this is one of the few times rinsing pasta is correct. You want the noodles cold (or at least room temperature) and non-sticky. The cold rinse stops the cooking and removes excess starch that would make the sauce gummy.
Toss
-
Combine the noodles with the peanut sauce. Use tongs to toss until every strand is coated. Add the shredded carrots, cucumber, bell pepper, and green onions. Toss again. The vegetables add crunch and colour — without them, it’s just peanut butter pasta, which is fine but less exciting. Top with crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, cilantro, and a big squeeze of lime.
Spicy Peanut Noodles — 15 Minutes
My daughter eats these cold from the fridge. My boys heat them up. I add extra sriracha to mine. This recipe serves every temperature preference and every heat tolerance level in our house simultaneously, which makes it basically the only dinner that doesn’t require a negotiation session before cooking.
Spicy peanut noodles are the recipe I wish I’d discovered ten years ago. Creamy peanut sauce tossed with noodles, crunchy vegetables, and as much or as little heat as you want. They take 15 minutes, they work hot or cold, they’re vegetarian (unless you add chicken, which I often do), and they taste like the expensive noodle bowl from that place downtown that charges $16 for what amounts to peanut butter and spaghetti. I make the same thing for about $3 a serving and nobody in my house can tell the difference. That’s not a criticism of the restaurant — it’s a compliment to peanut butter.
The Polish connection is thin on this one, I’ll admit. But my babcia always said “dobra kucharka gotuje ze wszystkiego” — a good cook makes food from everything. And peanut butter noodles are proof that sometimes the humblest pantry ingredients create the best meals. Babcia would approve of the resourcefulness, even if the fish sauce would confuse her.
Ingredients
For the Peanut Sauce
- • 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter — natural or regular, both work
- • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- • 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
- • 1 tablespoon sriracha (adjust to taste)
- • 1 clove garlic, grated
- • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- • 2-3 tablespoons warm water (to thin the sauce)
For the Noodles
- • 12 oz (340g) noodles — spaghetti, linguine, rice noodles, or soba
- • 1 cup shredded carrots
- • 1 cucumber, julienned
- • 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- • 1/4 cup crushed peanuts
- • 3 green onions, sliced
- • Fresh cilantro
- • Lime wedges
- • Sesame seeds
How to Make Them
Make the Sauce
Whisk all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. The peanut butter will resist at first — keep whisking and adding warm water until it becomes a pourable, creamy consistency. Taste it: it should be salty, nutty, tangy, and sweet, with a kick of heat from the sriracha. If it’s too thick, add more water. Too salty, more honey. Too tame, more sriracha. This sauce is the personality of the entire dish, so get it right before moving on.
Cook the Noodles
Boil noodles per package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water — this is one of the few times rinsing pasta is correct. You want the noodles cold (or at least room temperature) and non-sticky. The cold rinse stops the cooking and removes excess starch that would make the sauce gummy.
Toss
Combine the noodles with the peanut sauce. Use tongs to toss until every strand is coated. Add the shredded carrots, cucumber, bell pepper, and green onions. Toss again. The vegetables add crunch and colour — without them, it’s just peanut butter pasta, which is fine but less exciting. Top with crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, cilantro, and a big squeeze of lime.
Hot vs. Cold: The Great Debate
This recipe works both ways, which is one of its superpowers. Cold peanut noodles are perfect for summer — refreshing, crunchy, no-cook lunch situation. Hot peanut noodles are cosy, rich, and more like a traditional stir-fry dinner. My daughter insists cold is better. My boys insist warm is better. I make them room temperature and tell everyone it’s their preferred temperature. Parenting is sometimes just confident lying.
For cold: cook noodles, rinse, toss with sauce and veggies, refrigerate for 30 minutes. For hot: skip the rinse, toss the hot noodles with sauce, add veggies at the end so they stay crispy. Both approaches are correct. Neither side has to win.
Tips
💡 Pro Tips
✓ Natural peanut butter works best. It’s thinner and blends more easily into the sauce. Regular PB works fine but you may need more water to thin it.
✓ Lime juice at the end. A big squeeze of fresh lime right before eating brightens everything and keeps the sauce from feeling heavy.
✓ The vegetables matter. They add crunch that contrasts with the soft noodles and creamy sauce. Don’t skip them — they’re what makes this feel like a complete meal instead of a bowl of peanut butter spaghetti.
✓ Rinse the noodles for cold version. This prevents clumping and removes starch. For hot version, reserve pasta water instead and use it to thin the sauce if needed.
Variations
• With chicken: Add shredded rotisserie chicken for protein. The peanut sauce coats the chicken beautifully.
• With tofu: Pan-fried crispy tofu cubes. The crunch + creamy sauce is exceptional.
• Almond butter version: Swap peanut butter for almond butter if there’s a peanut allergy. The flavour is slightly different — nuttier, less sweet — but still delicious.
• Spicy peanut kopytka: Yes, I tossed kopytka in peanut sauce once. My babcia is spinning. But the chewy potato dumplings in spicy peanut sauce with cucumber and sesame? Unhinged and brilliant. Polish-Thai fusion that nobody asked for and everybody ate.
How to Store
Fridge for 3-4 days. These are excellent meal prep — portion into containers for lunch all week. The sauce thickens as it sits; add a splash of water and a squeeze of lime when eating. Not freezer-friendly because the vegetables get soggy and the noodles absorb all the sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
My sauce is too thick — what happened?
Not enough water, or the peanut butter was too thick. Add warm water a tablespoon at a time and whisk until it reaches a pourable consistency. It should coat noodles, not cement them together.
Can kids eat this?
Skip the sriracha entirely and it’s a mild, sweet, nutty noodle dish that most kids love. My daughter has been eating the no-sriracha version since she was four. The peanut flavour is familiar and the noodles are universally kid-approved. Add the heat to adult portions individually.