Recipe: Peanut Noodles (Vegan!)

Greetings all you wonderful beings! 

This is my favorite thing to eat ever. I can make this meal in my sleep and it never fails to cheer me up.

There are lots of peanut sauce recipes out there but this one was originally created by my Mom and became my favorite thing to eat as a child. As I grew up and learned how to cook I changed and tweaked it until it became my own.

This is a great meal because it’s fast and relatively easy. It has lot of protein and can be as full of veggies as you want. It’s also very flexible; it can be changed around without really any bad affects.

Ingredients:

one lb pasta

Sauce:

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup veggie broth

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 TB vinegar

2 TB sugar

1 tea sesame oil (optional)

1 tea powdered ginger (optional)

1/2 tea hot pepper flakes (optional) 

2 TB sesame seeds (optional)

1 TB Thai curry paste (optional)

1/4 cup coconut milk (optional)

Cook pasta. Any kind of pasta will work. I usually use whatever I have. However thick spaghetti is what I grew up eating this sauce on, while fettuccini works well too. Thicker rice noodles or Udon is probably my favorite to use now.

Just be sure the pasta is not so thin that the sauce bogs it down and make it turn into a giant sticky pasta lump. I usually stay way from thin spaghetti or thin rice noodles for this reason.   

To make the sauce:

Place the garlic in the blender pulse blend until finely minced. Add all the rest of the sauce ingredients into blender. Pulse blend for three minutes, or until smooth.

You can also make the sauce on the stovetop. In a small saucepan sautéing the garlic and then adding the peanut butter. Do Not let the peanut butter burn (and for those of you who have never melted peanut butter on a stovetop it goes from melted to burned in a second.) Adding the veggie broth when the peanut butter is soft but not melted. Stir with a whisk or fork until combined. Then add the other sauce ingredients and let simmer until sauce thickens. 

When the pasta is done drain and mix with the sauce. If you made the sauce in the blender you may need to simmer the pasta and sauce for a minute to thicken it.

Add veggies. Any veggies you like will work with this meal. We added peas and green beans (which we had in the freezer) to the pasta in the pictures. I usually add whatever I have or whatever is in season. Some of my favorite veggies to add to this meal are:

Peas

Thinly sliced carrots

Lightly steamed broccoli

Green or red pepper

Lightly steamed summer squash

Thinly sliced sweet onion

Lightly steamed bok choy

Pealed, cubed and sautéed eggplant

Serve hot or cold and enjoy!