Easy Cold Sesame Noodles
An easy cold sesame noodle salad that's great at room temp or right out of the fridge. Great for outdoor meals or when it's too hot to spend a lot of time in front of the stove!
Yield: 6
Materials
For the Dressing (makes 1½ cups)
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2-3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- ¼ cup tahini, well-stirred
- ⅓ cup peanut butter, natural style preferred
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup rice vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
- 1-2 tablespoons sriracha, sambal or your favorite hot sauce, or to taste (optional)
For the Noodle Salad
- 4 cups (230g) broccoli florets
- 1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper, seeded, cut into thin slices
- 2 large carrots, peeled and julienned (or grated)
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced (reserve some scallion greens to garnish at the end)
- 1 pound spaghetti, linguine, chinese noodles or soba noodles
- 2 tablespoons white and/or black sesame seeds (reserve a small amount to garnish at the end)
- roasted peanuts or cashews, chopped, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Put a large pot of water over high heat to boil. In a food processor or blender, combine all the ingredients for the dressing. Blend until smooth. (Taste dressing, adjusting acid, saltiness or sweetness as desired.) If dressing is too thick (it should be a thin, pourable texture), add 1-2 tablespoons of water and blend again.
- Salt the boiling water with a few, large pinches of salt. Add the broccoli and cook for 2-3 minutes until crisp-tender. Remove broccoli with a slotted spoon or spider into a bowl. Place in colander and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. Leave to drain in the colander.
- In the same pot of boiling water, cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain. Combine noodles, broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, scallions and sesame seeds in a large mixing bowl. Dress with 3/4 of the dressing and toss well to combine. If noodles need more dressing, add more. Otherwise, reserve extra dressing to re-dress leftovers or another use.
- Place noodle salad on a serving platter or bowl. Garnish with reserved scallions and sesame seeds, chopped peanuts or cashews, as desired.
Notes
-to make the dressing by hand, mince or grate the garlic and ginger. Combine everything in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Adjust thickness with warm water.
-Feel free to adjust the amounts of salt (soy sauce), acidity (the vinegar) and sweetness (honey or maple) to your tastes.
-leftovers keep well for 3 days in the refrigerator.