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.