Spicy Peanut Noodles

I have been hearing about different versions of these noodles using peanut butter for a long time. They sounded sorta interesting, but really, peanut butter? So, I never felt very motivated to give them a try. Then last month, our blogger group got together at Kathy’s house for a pot-luck lunch and Jenn brought her Spicy Thai Noodles, which had me going “Heyyyyyyyyy – those ain’t half bad!” So, I spent a bunch of time looking at her recipe and others, and made a few test batches to see what we enjoyed and what needed more fine tuning. We for sure liked it more spicy than sweet, and also preferred a nice hit of citrus in there, to kind of cut the stickiness of the peanut butter. And I wanted enough veggies to make it less of a side dish and more of a meal.

The result is something we both like a lot. Like, a crazy LOT. What was I thinking all this time, not trying these? Another nice thing about this recipe is how easy it is to suit your tastes, and what you have on hand. You can cut back on the spice, maybe ramp up the soy, change out the vegetables – anything you like to make it your own!

Possibly the best thing of all? How quickly and easily it comes together. 5 minutes of prep work, and then the sauce is ready in the time it takes for the noodles to cook. You can’t beat that on a busy week night when you just have to get something on the table, and you want it to be fresh, homemade and healthy.

Save Print

Spicy Peanut Noodles

Author: Donalyn Ketchum

Cuisine: Asian Inspired

Recipe type: Side Dish

Serves: 4 as a side dish

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Ingredients

4 ounces noodles of your choice
Olive oil
1 cup small broccoli florets
½ cup julienned carrots
⅓ cup smooth, natural peanut butter
2 teaspoons honey
1 cup chicken broth, divided
¼ cup natural soy sauce [I prefer tamari sauce]
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
Juice of ½ lime [ or more, to taste]
2 teaspoons siracha sauce
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced or grated
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon or so chopped cilantro
2 scallions, sliced thinly
⅓ cup roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Instructions

Start the water to cook the noodles – follow package directions, omitting salt, and using a tablespoon of soy sauce in the cooking water instead.
Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large sauté pan, and add the broccoli and carrots, Stir fry for about minutes until tender crisp.
Put the peanut butter and honey in a small bowl.
Heat ½ cup of the chicken broth almost to boiling, and pour over the peanut butter and honey and stir until smooth and blended. This may take a minute, but it will come together.
Once it does, add the soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, siracha, sesame oil, ginger and garlic, and stir together. Set aside.
When the noodles are done, add them to the pan with the broccoli and carrots, and combine.
Pour the sauce over the top, along with the sesame seeds, cilantro and about half of the scallions and half of the peanuts.
Stir everything together gently, and if you need to, add a bit more of the warmed chicken broth, until you have a pleasing consistency. You want the sauce to cling, but it should not be at all gummy or sticky.
Serve with the additional scallions and peanuts sprinkled over each serving.
Have some extra soy sauce and siracha available for people to add if they like.

Now, a few notes. I used angel hair pasta, but any sort of noodle will work. If you are eating gluten free, buckwheat noodles or even rice noodles would work. As noted, I used natural peanut butter, and ended up cutting back a little on the amount, compared to other recipes I have seen. So if you use a regular kind of peanut butter, you might want to increase the amount a little. Or, just go buy some natural peanut butter – that other stuff is yucky anyway, ya know? For additional vegetables, some finely shredded cabbage, julienned summer squash or snow peas would be great additions. Also I ran out of rice wine vinegar, by the time I made this final batch and used white wine vinegar instead, so use what you have on hand, though I did like the rice wine vinegar better. You can use whatever hot sauce you have as well, though I am not sure how anyone lives without siracha. Lastly, some sauteed chicken breast, pork or shrimp would be really good in here too. Just add along with the noodles and sauce.