These Peanut Sauce Noodles Are a About to Become a Family Favorite
A simple, flavorful weeknight meal that can be made from ingredients you already have in your own pantry, Peanut Noodles is a dinner that is both time-saving and comforting.
If there are so many peanut noodle recipes out there, then why are we making one, too?
First, it’s too good not to. We’re talking about savory, creamy, peanut-y sauce coating strands of slippery noodles and crunchy vegetables. It’s more than just good – it’s incredible.
Second, it’s one of the best meals for meal planning, because it’s a quick and easy dinner to make during the week! Most of these ingredients can be found in your pantry, making it a low-cost, but still healthy and delicious, meal.
“Colorful and easy! I was skeptical of the uncooked cabbage, but the hot ingredients softened it nicely. Breakthrough! Nine-year-old declares she now likes red peppers.”
-Linda
Peanut butter and pasta are our staple pantry items, and most likely, you have these on stand-by in your pantry, as well. Which means that with some other pantry essentials (such as soy sauce, rice vinegar, and honey), you can throw this dish together anytime.
Especially during those tiring evenings when you come home from work, and the last thing you want to do is slave away in the kitchen. We know how that can be.
Making this dish is so simple and fast, there is absolutely no stress involved.
We use bell peppers and cabbage for the veggies in our recipe, but you can get creative and use whatever you have in your fridge, such as broccoli, celery, and carrots. This dish will go well with any kind of vegetable, and now you can also put those veggie odds-and-ends to good use without any food waste!
The same thing goes for proteins. We like these noodles with shrimp, but it doesn’t matter what you use – chicken, pork, tofu . . . This peanut sauce is so good, you’ll want to cover everything with it.
“There are two of us. I cook for four so we have leftovers, and there weren’t enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow because it was so good! It was so flavorful with the perfect amount of tang and spice.”
-Rachel
Lastly, this is a meal planning dream, because you can double up on all of the prep, and use the rest for another meal for the week. Create new dishes with different flavor profiles, tastes, and textures by:
- Cooking more pasta than needed, and using the other half for a flavorful Pesto Pasta.
- Doubling the batch of peanut sauce and saving half for Asian Summer Rolls.
- And we all know that one head of cabbage makes way too much for one meal. Don’t let it go to waste! Use the rest of the cabbage to make a Red Cabbage Slaw and serve it with panko-crusted fish and tortillas, and you got Taco Night covered.
Or . . . you can just make a double batch of these peanut noodles, because one serving might not be enough, and you can enjoy the leftovers for lunch the next day!
COOKING SMARTS:
#Eatmoreveggies by using cucumber and zucchini noodles instead of pasta. [Learn how to noodle-fy veggies with a spiralizer here.]
Prepping Smarts
- There’s a bit of veggie chopping and prep for this recipe, but our videos below show you how this can be done quickly and efficiently.
- Shrimp is also a very quick and easy protein to use for this dish, especially if you keep frozen shrimp handy in the freezer. Check out the video below to see how to defrost shrimp quickly when you’ve forgotten to take it out of the freezer the night before.
How to Peel, Grate and Chop Ginger
See how easily we peel ginger and then grate it or chop it.
How to Slice Bell Peppers
Watch this video to learn how to slice bell peppers.
How to Slice Cabbage
See how easy it is to break down a head of cabbage for slaws and soups.
Prepping Frozen Shrimp
Watch how we defrost frozen shrimp when we need it for tonight's dinner.
For more kitchen and equipment and tool smarts, visit our Essential Kitchen Cookware and Tools
Ingredients
- Red peppers (small) – 1, sliced thinly
- Cabbage (small) – 1/2 head, sliced thinly (~4 cups, sliced)
- Green onions – 3 stalks, sliced thinly
- Shrimp – 1 lb, peeled and deveined
- Linguine – 6 oz
- Pasta water – 1/2 cup
- Cooking oil – 1 1/2 Tbsp
- White sesame seeds (opt) – 2 Tbsp
- Lime – 1/2, juice of
- Salt and pepper – to taste
- Ginger – 1 inch, grated
- Peanut butter – 1/4 cup (creamy is preferred, but crunchy will also work)
- Soy sauce – 3 Tbsp
- Rice vinegar – 2 Tbsp
- Honey – 2 Tbsp
- Cooking oil – 1 Tbsp
- Sriracha (or other hot sauce) – 1 Tbsp
- Lime – 1, juice of
Instructions
Prep
- For sauce | Ginger – Prep as directed. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- For noodles | Red peppers / Cabbage / Green onions – Prep as directed. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)
- Make sauce – Soften peanut butter in the microwave for ~30 seconds. Mix with ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, cooking oil, Sriracha (or other hot sauce), and lime juice.
- Shrimp – Defrost, rinse, and pat dry. Lightly salt and pepper.
Make
- Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Salt generously and add pasta, and cook according to package instructions. Drain, keeping 1/2 cup of pasta water (for 4 servings – adjust accordingly for other serving sizes).
- While pasta is cooking, heat a skillet or saute pan over medium-high heat. Add oil and then shrimp to heated oil. Saute until cooked pink on the outside and cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from pan.
- Toss peanut sauce with red peppers, cabbage, green onions, warm pasta, pasta water, shrimp and sesame seeds. Finish with lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
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