Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipes

Something cool for those dog days of summer:

Asian Peanut Noodles

• 8 oz. linguine, cooked (don’t rinse)
• ½ cup peanut butter, creamy or chunky
• ½ cup reserved pasta water (to thin out sauce)
• 1-2 TBSP brown sugar
• 1-2 TBSP soy sauce
• ¼ - ½ teaspoon sambal oelek (hot chili paste)
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, finely minced (or substitute ½ tsp ground ginger)
• ½ cup shredded carrots or broccoli slaw
• ½ red or green pepper, thinly sliced
• 2-3 green onions, thinly sliced, white & tender green parts only
• 3 TBSP minced cilantro

Make sauce:

Whisk the peanut butter, brown sugar, soy sauce, sambal oelek, and ginger. Taste to adjust seasonings if necessary.

*Note: I used low salt soy, and found I had to add salt. Use regular soy as desired. I found the sambal oelek at my local grocery for under $2 for a decent size jar. It has a slow after burn, so use suggested amount and add more to taste. I used ground ginger in my recipe, and highly recommend getting a knob of fresh. I think the flavor would have been much brighter.

Add the water a little at a time until sauce reached desired consistency (ie. loose, but not watery).

Dump noodles into large bowl, pour sauce over and toss to coat. Add the veggies and toss again. Garnish with cilantro.

*Note: I’m one of those genetically inferior people who doesn’t like cilantro; I used a mix of mostly flat-leaf parsley with some cilantro- like ¾ parsley to ¼ cilantro.

Makes enough for 4-6 people as a side dish. Serve cold or at room temperature.