I am a busy girl. I work full-time, have a side business, blog when I can, have a dog and not to mention have 5 lbs of junk mail to sift through every day! That leaves me limited time for other things. I love to cook, but I really don’t have time to cook large gourmet meals, unless it’s on the weekend. So, I love to hunt for flavorful recipes, with simple ingredients that can be thrown together quickly for dinner during the week. This is one of my favorites. I love ordering this when I go out for Chinese food! It can be served hot or cold and makes excellent leftovers! I use whole wheat pasta for the health benefits. But the best part… it has peanut butter in it! Who doesn’t love peanut butter! Here is the recipe..
1/2 pound whole wheat pasta (spaghetti, linguine, vermacelli)
1/4 cupdark soy sauce
1/4 rounded cup smooth peanut butter, thinned out with some hot water
2 tablespoons cider or rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2 tablespoons hot sauce
pinch of red pepper flakes
3 scallions, chopped on an angle
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Cook pasta to al dente, with a bite to it, then cold shock it to stop the cooking process by running it under cold water in colander. Drain the pasta very well.
In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk together soy sauce, peanut butter, vinegar, sesame oil, hot sauce and red pepper. Add noodles, toss to combine the noodles and coat them evenly with sauce. Sprinkle scallions and sesame seeds throughout the salad and serve with chopsticks for an ‘authentic’ feel!
** The best part about recipes like this is that you can vary the ingredients to make it your own. Try adding a small amount of grated ginger ora small clove of crushed garlic to the sauce. You can also add some shredded cucumber or julienned red pepper as well.