Cold Thai Noodle Salad

The ingredient of the day isss.....

SUNBUTTER! Mmm, a delicious spread made with sunflower seeds, and no peanuts, tree nuts, milk, soy, wheat, shellfish, or other allergens within the facility. Why is it magical? Jimmy can eat it, I can eat it, and it tastes damn close to peanut butter. WIN-WIN.

Did you know food allergies are scary? Welp, they are. They're also a bummer. They hardly have their upsides, 99% of the time, they're a drag. The coolest part of food allergies? Jimmy and I get our stir fry cooked separately in the kitchen at Mongolian BBQ when we go. This makes us feel special. That is all.

Asian foods are particularly scary. Peanuts pop up in strange places, fish and oyster sauces are all up in my grill...get that lobster outta my face!

So I've taken to making my own version of a handful of Asian-inspired dishes. I can successfully tackle fried rice, fresh spring rolls, a Thai coconut-curry dish, and two kinds of noodle dishes with "peanut" dressings. This post is for the simple noodle salad I make. The other one gets crazy delicious, tons of veggies and cilantro....mmm! We'll save that for summer when my garden is exploding with edible gifts.

You'll want to start by getting your pasta going. Boil water, salt it, throw in a package of long, skinny noodles, boil for however long the package says. This time I used regular Barilla thin spaghetti, as I already had a package opened. For these salads, I really like Hodgson Mill's brown rice/flax seed pastas. Give 'em a try, they're good!

Next you'll mince up 2-3 cloves of garlic, about an inch long chunk of ginger, and slice 3-4 scallions. Trick: if your ginger is frozen, you can just grate it with a microplane! Mine wasn't frozen...

To start the dressing, you'll want to toast up some sesame seeds in a nonstick pan over medium heat. It just takes a few minutes. Stir often to prevent burning!

You want your sesame seeds to look like they went to Cancun for spring break. See? Throw 'em in a good sized bowl. One with enough room to toss your noodles around. See what I did there? See?!

Then pour a little oil (a tablespoon, perhaps) into the skillet, and cook up the garlic and ginger for a few minutes. It'll take the bite out of the garlic.

Plop the garlic and ginger in the same bowl as the sesame seeds. They are now friends.

Now, to this bowl of friendship, add:

1/4 cup Sunbutter (or peanut butter)
1/4 cup soy sauce (reduced sodium, yo)
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons teriyaki or hoisin sauce, either will add depth
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sriracha

Whisk it up!

When the noodles are done, reserve a bit of the cooking water. Drain the noodles, and drop them into the bowl with the dressing. Stir like crazy! Add the cooking water to make the dressing thinner. I skipped this step, and my noodles were kind of goopy. Stir in the green onions, then pop them in the fridge for a bit. Or eat them warm, either way, they're tasty!

Noodlenoodlenoodle!

Cait