Ten weeks in, even the keenest home cooks among us–namely, my mom and I–are hitting quarantine cooking fatigue. The meal planning two weeks in advance, the masking at the grocery store and sanitizing at home, the having to conjure up a reasonably healthy meal three times a day– it is what my mom would call “a production.”
Exhausted by the rigamarole, my mom and I have been on the hunt for recipes that are easily doubled (she’s cooking for my dad, too), reasonably balanced, and keep for up to a week. Bonus points get awarded to recipes that go from fridge to table in less than a minute– no reheating required.
This Asian noodle salad with peanut sauce has been her best find yet. There’s some prep work–you have to chop the veg, boil the noodles, and make the peanut dressing–but it’s all pretty easy, the type of work that can be done absentmindedly, while enjoying a podcast.
And the results? Well, let’s just say I happily dove into this recipe, day after day. The vibrant vegetables balance out the noodles perfectly, and the truly fabulous peanut sauce binds everything together. This dish is crunchy, it’s filling, it feels like the perfect compromise between eating the noodles you want and the salad you need. (It was so good, in fact, that the person I am quarantining with promptly made another batch after we had polished off this one.)
The peanut sauce–full of ginger and citrus–is non-negotiable (one taste and I promise you’ll agree). But everything else is endlessly adaptable. Don’t have red cabbage? Green will do! No bell peppers? Double the carrots! Have some radishes or jicama languishing in the produce drawer? Toss them in!
Same goes for the noodles: I used soba, but this recipe is already just kinda pan-Asian-ish, so you could make this Asian noodle salad with ramen or a rice noodle like vermicelli, too.
For me, this meal was filling enough. But if you have very hungry people around, I could see this working well with roasted tofu or grilled or poached chicken. Just get your protein going first so you can serve this Asian noodle salad cold or room temperature– cold beer optional, but in these as in all other times, strongly recommended.
Previously:
One year ago: How to Keep Asparagus Fresher, Longer
Two years ago: Mexico City Food Guide (travel, sigh)
Three years ago: How to Reduce the Bite of Red Onions
Four years ago: Muesli with Nuts, Dried Fruit, and Coconut
And for my Australians:
Six months ago: Roasted Butternut Squash with Lentils, Herbs, and Gorgonzola
One and a half years ago: Slow-Cooker Tuscan Ribollita
Two and a half years ago: French Vegetable Soup with Basil Puree
Three and a half years ago: Apple Crisp (can I have this right now?)
Asian Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce
6
servingsAn addictive citrus-ginger peanut sauce binds together this kinda Asian–and very satisfying–mix of silky noodles and crunchy vegetables.
Feel free to substitute nearly any crunchy vegetables here– I would say the only thing that’s mandatory is the cabbage.
Ingredients
- Noodle Salad
9.5 ounces (269g) soba (or ramen, rice noodles, etc)
1 small red cabbage, quartered and finely sliced
1 red bell pepper, finely sliced
3-4 carrots, grated or finely sliced
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped (a lot of people chop their cilantro too finely, leaving the flavor on the cutting board– rough chop is fine!)
5 green onions, sliced
a few big handfuls of peanuts, to garnish
Sambal oelek, sriracha, or other tasty chili-garlic condiment, to serve
- Peanut Sauce
8 generous slices of ginger, peeled (peel then slice)
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup (130g) peanut butter
1/2 cup (118ml) orange juice
6 tablespoons (88ml) lime juice (from 2-3 limes)
1/4 cup (59ml) soy sauce
1/4 cup (59ml) honey (or slightly less if you’re using a peanut butter like Skippy or Jiff, which already have sugar added)
6 tablespoons (88ml) sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Blend all of the peanut sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth. No blender? Mince the garlic and ginger as finely as possible; then whisk all of the ingredients together until smooth. Then: taste and adjust ingredients to your liking.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water.
- Place all of the chopped vegetables and herbs in large bowl. Add the drained noodles. Toss.
- Portion out however much you’re going to eat tonight. Drizzle with peanut sauce and toss. Garnish with peanuts and serve with sambal oelek, sriracha, or other chili garlic sauce. Serve!
Notes
- Store salad and dressing separately in the fridge. Leftovers will keep up to 5 or 6 days.
This will be going into my summer rotation! The veggie mix and dressing did indeed keep for about 5 days. I could only find one package of regular soba noodles at my grocery store, so I supplemented toward the end of the week with pre-cooked soba noodles. An even easier option you can just heat up in the microwave.