eat make read

When we arrived home on Sunday from our trip to San Francisco (amaaaazing!!), I was torn between being totally sleep deprived and wanting to get in my kitchen and make a little mess. I flipped through my cookbooks and got an idea for sesame and peanut noodles, which sounded like the perfect blend of comfort food with a splash of fresh green veggies that I was desperately in need of after a week of ice cream and burritos. The result is a surprising quick, creamy and fresh recipe that made me happy to be home.

I know this might be too much for some people, but I love the fact that I can whip up peanut (or any nut) butter with the zip of my food processor, so I combined some peanuts and sesame seeds to do just that. Friends, it’s so easy, I swear. It simply takes pressing the on button, scraping the bowl once or twice and tadaaa… you’ll have a beautiful butter. With the butter made, I started multi-tasking. I got the water boiling on the stove and tossed some soba noodles in it. While those were cooking I whipped up the dressing and prepped some veggies to toss in.

About fifteen minutes later, I tossed the noodles in the dressing, making sure to coat all the noodles and veggies. I sat down at the table with a little pep in my step—it felt so good to get back in the kitchen and make something—and tried not devour it right away. The texture of the noodles was nice and pillowy, perfect for rolling them around my fork. The sauce had a nice, subtle complexity that came from the addition of soy sauce and vinegar, a dash of sriracha and sprinkling of ginger and jalepeño. And of course, those snow peas balanced the creaminess of the sauce with a burst of freshness in each bite. Plus, there’s a bonus to this awesomely easy dinner—leftovers. It’s nice to be home.

peanut + sesame noodles with snow peas
loosely adapted from how to cook everything vegetarian

A note, if you don’t use homemade peanut and sesame butter, use 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter or a combination of creamy peanut butter and tahini.

1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup peanuts
1 package soba noodles (you could also use rice noodles)
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 jalepeño pepper, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups snow peas
a small squeeze or sriracha (about a fingernails worth)
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup scallions, chopped for garnish

1
In a medium pot, boil water.
2
Meanwhile, add the sesame seeds and peanuts to a food processor and blitz for 3-4 minutes, scrape bowl and blitz for 2-3 more minutes, until you begin to see the oils releasing and the mixture begins to get creamy. Set aside.
3
Once the water is boiling on the stove, add the noodles.
4
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame oil, sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, black pepper, sriracha and lime juice. Add the ginger and jalepeños.
5
Stir in the sesame and peanut butter and mix until fully incorporated. The sauce should be about the consistency of heavy cream or slightly thicker.
6
Strain the noodles and toss with the sauce until fully coated. Add the snow peas and give it one more toss. Garnish with scallions.