Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite summer time meals. This dish is Thai inspired with its sweet and tangy peanut sauce that has just a little bit of kick. These noodles are served cold or at room temperature. I have played around with a cooked version of this that we eat when it’s colder outside and it’s delicious as well. The veggies are sautéed instead of raw and the noodles aren’t rinsed in cold water. It’s just as good!

The first time I made these for my boyfriend, he was thrown off by the cold noodle dish. He was expecting something warm! After some grumbling he dug right in… and then ate most of the leftovers as well! That’s always a good sign. 🙂

These noodles take about as long to make as it takes for the water to boil and the noodles to cook. If you’ve never had soba noodles I do recommend that you try them. You can find them in the ethnic food aisle of your grocery store in the Asian section. There are a couple of other noodles there, udon and rice. The udon noodles would also do well here. You could even sub spaghetti noodles, if you want. Try out the soba noodles, not only are they great for you they taste great and don’t have the same texture issues you can run into with some whole wheat pastas.

Another plus about this dish is the veggies in there are raw. I try and incorporate raw whole foods in my diet regularly. This often means having a smoothie for breakfast but sometimes also means having a raw lunch or dinner. Obviously this dish isn’t entirely raw, but you do get the living enzymes from the raw veggies. I think this guy gives a pretty good list of the benefits of eating raw. Some of the raw thinking is a little too “granola” even for this granola girl, but I definitely believe that the less processed food is, the better it is for you.

Anyhow, without further ado, I give you Soba Noodles. 😉

Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce:

Ingredients:
1 package of soba (buckwheat) noodles, cooked and rinsed to cool
4 oz snow peas (or a good handful), cut into strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 large carrot, grated
Bean Sprouts
Chopped peanuts for garnish
Peanut Sauce (recipe below)

Peanut Sauce:
2 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 tsp honey (I use raw)
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 to 1 tsp of chili garlic paste (more if you like it spicy!)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 green onion, green and white part, thinly sliced*
1 + tbsp of water (save the pasta water to thin the sauce)

Directions:

Put a pot of water on to boil. Combine all ingredients for the peanut sauce in a small bowl or wet measure and whisk until combined. Set aside.

Prep the carrot, red bell pepper, and snow peas and place them in a large bowl while the waiting for the water to boil.

Cook the noodles as directed (they only take about 4 minutes). At this point you can add a tbsp or two to the dressing, enough to thin it out a little so it’ll coat the noodles easier.

After the noodles are cooked, drain them and rinse them in cold water until they are about room temperature. Add them to the veggie mix in the bowl and toss with the peanut sauce to coat.

Serve garnished with the bean sprouts and chopped peanuts (I used roasted salted peanuts, but unsalted or even raw would work here as well). Enjoy!