Dinner
Peanut Noodles with Whatever Vegetables You Have
Peanut noodle recipes usually tell you to use a blender. You do not need one. Peanut butter thins out with hot water and a whisk in about 30 seconds, and cleaning a mug beats cleaning a blender jar every single time. This is a good use for the bag of frozen stir fry vegetables that has been in your freezer since move-in.
Cost a serving$1.40
Time20 minutes
Serves4
Protein18g
Pad thai delivery costs about $18. This costs $1.40 a serving.
You save about $16.60 every time you make it instead.
What you need
Pot, Colander or lid to drain, Mug, Fork or small whisk
No special tools
No Blender or food processor?Whisk the sauce in a mug with a fork. Add the hot water a tablespoon at a time. If you dump it all in at once, the peanut butter seizes into a lump and you will think you broke it.
No Colander?Hold the pot lid slightly off center and pour the water out. Or scoop the noodles out with tongs and skip draining entirely.
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or lime juice, or plain white vinegar in a pinch)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar or honey
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic, jarred is fine
- 1/2 teaspoon chili crisp or sriracha, plus more at the table
- 1/3 cup hot water from the noodle pot
Noodles
- 12 oz spaghetti, ramen, or lo mein noodles
- 3 cups frozen stir fry vegetables
- 2 green onions, sliced, optional
- 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts, optional
How to make it
- Put a big pot of water on to boil. Salt it once it boils, about a tablespoon.
- While it heats, put everything for the sauce except the water into a mug. Stir it with a fork. It will look thick and wrong. That is correct.
- Cook the noodles per the package, but set a timer for 2 minutes less than it says. Add the frozen vegetables to the same pot for those last 2 minutes.
- Before you drain, scoop out 1/3 cup of the starchy cooking water and whisk it into the sauce mug a tablespoon at a time. It will go from thick paste to pourable sauce. The starch is what makes it cling to the noodles instead of sliding off.
- Drain the noodles and vegetables and dump them back in the hot pot, off the heat.
- Pour the sauce over and toss with tongs for a solid 30 seconds. Keep tossing past the point where it looks done. That is when it actually coats.
- Top with green onions and peanuts. Taste it. It will almost always want more vinegar or more chili.
Protein
About 18 grams per serving from the peanut butter and the wheat noodles. Solid on its own. Adding crispy tofu or edamame gets you near 28 grams, which is where you want to be if this is your only real meal that day.
Ways to add more
- 1 cup frozen shelled edamame, added with the vegetables
- 8 oz crispy tofu, see the tofu recipe on this site
- 2 cups plant-based chicken strips, pan seared
Keeping it
Keeps 4 days and is genuinely good cold out of the container, which makes it one of the best lunch-to-work recipes here. The noodles absorb sauce overnight, so add a splash of water and a squeeze of lime before eating.
Change it up
- No peanut butter? Sunflower seed butter or tahini both work. Tahini needs an extra teaspoon of sugar.
- Add a tablespoon of curry powder to the sauce for a completely different dish
- Serve it over shredded cabbage instead of noodles to cut the cost and the carbs