We served this as a side dish the other night when I made sriracha lime chicken skewers. I was craving a psuedo Thai dish and this popped into my feed.
These noodles are great for those nights when you’re craving extra saucy, slightly spicy peanut noodles, but don’t want to leave your house…or wait for take out. The noodles are tossed with a spicy, sweet, and salty peanut sauce, carrots, cilantro, and green onions. Serve with Sriracha sauce for those who want an additional kick.
This is one of those nice recipes that lets you play around with it. I had some red pepper so I sliced it thinly and tossed it in with the carrots. Other veggies would work as well.
If you wanted to 'bulk' these up a bit you could add some shredded, cooked chicken or some shrimp although they are just fine without.
This recipe makes a lot. The noodles tend to 'suck' up the sauce in the refrigerator. You can loosen the sauce up by adding a bit of hot water.
The sauce is quite thick so make sure you reserve the pasta water as the recipe suggests because you'll need to thin it down.
Enjoy!
Spicy Peanut Noodles
1 pound spaghetti or rice noodles (we used rice noodles)
¼ cup pasta cooking water
3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
⅓ cup peanut oil or other vegetable oil
1 tablespoon crushed red peppers
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 clove garlic minced
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons honey
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce like sriracha or chili paste
⅔ cup smooth or crunchy regular peanut butter
1 medium carrot grated
3 sliced green onions plus more for garnish
¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves
½ cup dry roasted peanuts chopped (68g or 2 1/2oz)
Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta cooking water to thin the peanut sauce, if needed.
Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water. Transfer the cooked noodles to a large bowl or back into the cooking pot. Toss with the sesame oil, set aside.
Toast the sesame seeds in a medium skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently. Watch carefully to ensure they don’t burn. Set aside to add to the finished dish.
In the now empty skillet combine the vegetable or peanut oil and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook gently over low to medium-low heat for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Don’t allow the mixture to get too hot as the peppers will burn and may be bitter.
Remove from the heat and add the grated ginger and minced garlic. Carefully stir to combine. Next add the salt, honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and hot sauce. Stir until blended. Finally add the peanut butter and stir until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.
Add the carrots, half the green onions and half the peanuts to the cooked noodles and toss to combine. Pour the peanut sauce over the cold noodles and toss to coat. Add a splash of pasta water as needed to adjust consistency. Transfer noodles to a serving bowl or individual plates and garnish with green onions, cilantro, chopped peanuts and toasted sesame seeds.
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