My niece is one of those crazy vegetarians. Not the total nutjob vegan type but your average every day vegetarian. I, on the other hand am one of those freakshow meat eaters. Meat, meat, meat. I. Eat. Meat.
I thought I ate a lot of it. I thought I was the meat eater of the century, capable of winning awards and making third world countries disease free with the juice of my antibiotic laced meat sweats. Turns out ... maybe I'm not as good at is as I thought.
For the past 2 years, for whatever reason, I've been taking a quick iPhone picture of my dinner and sending it to my niece before I settle down to put my incisors to good use. She Oooosss and Ahhhhsss over all of the vegetables, noodles and extra stuff while making barfing sounds at the sight of the meat. It's our thing. I make fun of her "lifestyle" as a vegetarian she makes fun of mine as a barbarian. Then we talk about what's going on in Homeland this season and whether or not we think her husband will make it a full month without injuring himself in some ridiculous way.
But the other day I scrolled through a few hundred of my dinner photos and realized ... I'm not the Majesty of Meat at all. I probably eat meat 3 out of 7 days a week which barely counts as a meat eater at all. I'd be laughed right out of caveman training.
Technically the recipe I'm going to show you today could be served with chicken but I kindda like it without. In fact, I way prefer it meatless.
It's Spicy Sesame Noodles. And it all comes down to the sauce.
I've been trying, searching for, experimenting with developing a spicy peanut type sauce for years now. I'd pretty much given up on it actually, then a month or so ago I thought I'd give it another shot.
I know there are a bunch of sesame noodle recipes out there that are really easy and pretty good, but I didn't want pretty good. I wanted great.
And low and behold it's not only vegetarian, it's VEGAN.
The important thing to this recipe, the only thing really, is the sauce. It's a spicy sesame/peanut sauce that will keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks. Probably longer actually but it's never lasted that long around these parts because it's so versatile. This sauce is GREAT on noodles, chicken, fried tofu, spring rolls, and it's especially good stirred into one of my favourite side dishes, sautéed kale with shredded carrots.
There are other sesame noodle sauce recipes with less ingredients, but that's why they taste a bit flat. This one has more depth of flavour making it taste more complex. In other words better.
The other great thing about this recipe is it's completely customizable. I've developed it for my tastes and so it has a balance of sweet, salty, acidic and heat. But if you don't like heat, then just don't add the chili pepper flakes. If you LOVE heat, then add more.
Ditto for the sugar, ginger, or anything else.
Spicy Sesame Noodles
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons sesame seeds toasted
- 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
- 4 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ginger fresh, grated
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ teaspoon hot sauce
- ¼ tsp. hot pepper flakes
- ½ cup hot water approximately
- 1 lb Chinese Noodles like Instant noodles for instance
- 4 green onions sliced thin
- 1 carrot grated or sliced in matchsticks
- 1 red bell pepper sliced very thin
Instructions
- To toast your sesame seeds just put them in a dry pan over medium low heat and toast until golden.
- Reserve 1 Tablespoon of the sesame seeds for garnish.
- Add the sesame seeds, soy sauce, peanut butter, rice vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, hot sauce, and pepper flakes to a blender or food processor. Blend until combined well.
- Add the water a tiny bit at a time until the sauce becomes runny like cream. Stop adding water once you're at the right consistency. You might not use all the water.
- Cook the noodles according to package directions. Instant noodles only take 1 minute to cook.
- Strain noodles and add the green onions, carrots and red peppers. Toss with the sauce then garnish with reserved sesame seeds.
Notes
Nutrition
Keep any leftover sauce in the fridge. It's great for chicken satays.
Unless of course you're a vegetarian. Or vegan. If that's the case then insert barfing sounds here.
brenda
yummmmmm throw in some shrimp and I'm all over this
Karol
On a side note... your photography skills are excellent!
Karen
Thanks for saying that Karol! Going down to 3 posts a week has given me a bit more time to set things up and really figure lighting out. Stuff I didn't have time for before because I had to rush through everything. I think it's made a big difference in my shots. ~ karen!
Heather
Sounds yum. I have a favourite peanut dipping sauce that I learned years ago at a cooking class that I love. So good with shrimp chips! Unfortunately right this minute I am on Weight Watchers - so this recipe will have to wait for awhile. My daughter has recently discovered PB2 and using it for recipes to cut down on the fat content. http://www.bellplantation.com/products/pb2-powdered-peanut-butter.html. If I try it I will let you know how it works out.
I love those Weck jars but have never bought any. Do they seal as well as a Mason jar? They sure are pretty!
Karen
No they don't Heather! The manufacturer will tell you that they will but I've used them several times and every time at least 1/3rd of them lose their seal. ~ karen!
Heather
Good to know. Thanks, Karen.
Amanda Rudack
I, also, need to know about that little glass container. In a right-now-where-do-I-buy-it sort of way.
Karen
LOL, Hi Amanda. It's a Weck jar. They're for canning but I've never had good luck with them for that. They're great for holding stuff though and look cool. You can get them on Amazon. ~ karen!
magali
very excited to try this!
Jane P
Yummy, I agree with Maura that this dish looks fresh & delicious. I have a simple sauce for Thai pizza that is also tasty with a little heat. Love hearing about your relationship with your niece. What is her favorite vegetarian dish?
Heather
Thai pizza? Do tell!
Karen
Cookies. ~ karen!
Marti
Can we get back to the Thai pizza recipe, please?
Karen: Nice to see you back in the kitchen. I came to TADS looking for a recipe and voila! You send one out. Hurray!
Marti
Btw, I make a similar "Sesame Noodle" dish based on a recipe from some other woman named Martha, somewhere. I discovered it's pretty great substituting kale for the noodles. I started to live happily ever after. You might try that sometime. I can only imagine the experience would be enhanced by the addition of peanut butter.
Um, and some leftover roast rotis chicken.
Karen
Would that be similar to the side dish I say I love that's ... kale with peanut sauce? ~ karen!
Marti
No, because the dish I make is EVERYTHING.... not a "side." It's the main event anytime I can get kale for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I buy the little baby kale in the bag at Costco when they have it. No "bitter" anywhere near.
But... I don't have a good front yard like you do.
Karen
Just for you lady! ~ karen
Maura
Looks fresh and delicious! I will try it tonight. Love that little jar you used to stored the peanut sauce. Was that bought online?
Karen
I bought it at my local kitchen store, but you can buy them online. It's a Wecks jar. Even though they're made for canning I don't recommend them for canning, they're VERY finicky. But they're great for the sort of thing I use them for (like holding sauces). ~ karen!
Glynis
This looks - and sounds so delicious. And I have all the ingredients too for both the sauce and the noodle/veg combo. Guess what I'll be making...
Karen
Come back and let me know how you like it Glynis and if you changed it for your tastes! ~ karen
Glynis
What can I say, wow! It's fantastic, and so easy to make. I only had dark soy (wasn't sure if you'd used light or dark) and it worked really well.
I can see this sauce being used a lot.
Thank you!!!
Karen
You're welcome Glynis! I'm happy you liked it as much as I do. ~ karen!
Louise
Mmmmm . . . sounds yummy! And heck, if this only takes 10 minutes I'm in!
Your easy broccoli soup recipe is absolutely wonderful, so I will follow your recipes slavishly from now on! ;-)
trish
found this post deeply disturbing --whaddya mean KALE and shredded carrot is your fave side dish!? As part of my trawl thru your archives to catch up wth all your other lucky followers who've known about you for years, found homework to try a new vegetable. So jumping in the deep end i grabbed the weirdest looking most unlikely vege from the supermarket to try. It was curly kale == it is weird, it looks weird it tastes weird and most disturbingly it feels weird -- and this is a favourite vegie . . . ? maybe canadian kale is different from kiwi kale
Karen
There is a big difference in different types of kale! Black Kale (dinosaur kale, lacinato kale) is less bitter than regular kale and less tough. It's the only kale I grow or eat. And you have to cut it into thin strips otherwise it stays tough. Add in the shredded carrots AND the peanut sauce (kind of the scene stealer really) and you'll like kale. Probably. Maybe. ~ karen!
Grammy
I've been looking for a good peanut sauce. This is it.
Amber
Do you think tahini or cashew butter would be a better substitute for those of us with nut allergies?
Karen
Cashew butter would work great. It's the nut taste that you have to replace. (as opposed to adding more sesame taste) ~ karen!
Amber
4 servings, my patootie! This is two servings on a good day!
Think you can small size your readers, do you?
Karen
Well I was just assuming you'd eat the serving with a whole pig of course. ~ karen!
calliek
I like a little bit of sesame oil in my peanut sauce. Also, I use chili garlic paste - saves having to add the hot sauce and garlic separately.
Karen
Yup. You could throw in sesame oil too. (I like toasted.) I use chili flakes because they're dried chilis that I grew this summer and dried out and they have a LOT of heat in them. ~ karen!
Lynne
This sounds like the flavour profile I have been looking for and have never quite been able to achieve. If I wasn't already in bed all cozy and warm I would be making them right now, I am so looking forward to tomorrow! This works as breakfast food right? :)
Luanne
Mmm, looks yummy! I may try that with glass noodles. But... I don't make noodles a lot - does that really say 1 lb of noodles? That sounds like a lot.
Karen
That's for 4 servings, lol. ~ karen!
ruth
Okay I'm trying this. I still haven't found the recipe I like but I trust your tastebuds.
Ev Wilcox
Me too!
Pam
Spicy peanut sauce is one of my favorite things and though I'm not much of a cook I may try this one out. Thanks for posting a vegetarian (non-barf) recipe!
Alison
Paula, it's a spider! It's great for deep frying, but it works like a charm to scoop things out of boiling water! (Karen, hope I didn't steal your thunder; I just love my own spider so much, I couldn't help myself!)
Karen
Thunder stealer. ~ karen!
Paula
Looks really good! What is that kitchen utensil?