Vegan Peanut Noodles

These vegan peanut noodles are loaded with crunchy veggies and topped with a creamy-savory peanut sauce.  They come together in about 20 minutes for an easy dinner or lunch.  They also work great as a packed lunch for kids or adults.  

The recipe uses a variation of my spicy peanut dressing, which can be prepped ahead of time to make this recipe come together even quicker.  The sauce may firm up in the refrigerator, you can whisk in a tablespoon of water if needed to thin it back out to make it easier to toss with the noodles and veggies.    

Ingredients for Spicy Peanut Dressing

Peanut Butter - Use natural peanut butter for these veggie peanut noodles, the kind made with just peanuts and maybe salt.  Before measuring stir the natural peanut butter to combine any oil separation.

Tamari - Use tamari or low-sodium soy sauce, regular soy sauce may be too salty.  I usually stick to tamari and if I can’t find that I’ll use low-sodium soy sauce.

Fresh lime juice - Use about 1 lime for tang and freshness.

Maple syrup - Use for a little sweetness.

Rice vinegar - For a little tang.

Ginger - Freshly grated ginger for more flavor.

Garlic powder - This can be substituted with 1-2 cloves of fresh garlic minced.

Crushed red pepper - Add for some heat to the vegan peanut butter noodles or substitute with a chili paste.

Vegetables

I use red cabbage, cucumber, and a couple of carrots for these vegan peanut noodles with vegetables.  Use whatever veggies are your favorite (as long as they go with a peanut sauce)!  

The carrot can be shredded instead of peeled if you prefer.  To make ribbons, use a vegetable peeler and peel the carrots lengthways until you can’t peel anymore; then eat the rest of the carrot, save it for homemade vegetable broth, place it in the compost, or give it to your dog (they love carrots).

A Mandoline slicer makes shredding cabbage quick and easy.  It creates thin and consistent slices, but please use the handguard to protect your fingers.

Tips

For these vegan peanut noodles, I tested a few different brands of rice noodles, and they each had different instructions on how to cook them.  Make sure you cook the noodles according to your package instructions.  All of the brands I tested with direct you to rinse the noodles after cooking.  Even after draining the noodles, the rinsing process added too much excess liquid for my preference and diluted the sauce.

So if you rinse your brown rice noodles, skip the ¼ cup of water.  If you substitute with whole wheat pasta that doesn’t need rinsing, then add ¼ cup of water to the sauce when preparing it.  If you don’t have brown rice noodles, 8 ounces of whole wheat spaghetti can be substituted.  In that scenario, add ¼ cup of water to the peanut sauce to thin it out.

The recipe was only tested with brown rice noodles, white rice noodles, and whole wheat pasta. Some gluten-free pasta usually needs to be rinsed after cooking, but I don't know if it holds on to water like brown and white rice noodles.

How to Make Vegan Peanut Sauce Noodles

Cook the noodles according to the package instructions, then drain and rinse under cold water. Whisk all of your ingredients for the spicy peanut dressing together.  Use a blender instead of a whisk for a smoother consistency.

Prep your veggies!  

Use a large bowl for your vegan peanut noodles to toss everything together!

Top the peanut noodles with chopped roasted nuts, fresh cilantro, or more crushed red pepper (if you like it extra spicy).

Leftover Red Cabbage?

Here’s a recipe for a vegan deconstructed sushi bowl to use that leftover red cabbage.

More Vegan Oil-Free Meals

• Spicy chickpea stew with zucchini
• Deconstructed sushi bowl (vegan)
• Peanut tempeh bowl
• Roasted sweet potato bowl
• Creamy tahini soba noodles
• Vegan Creamy Tomato Pasta

As always, I hope you enjoy the recipe for vegan peanut noodles!

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